Tour of Korea "Same, Same but Different"

Wow

2007-05-15T22:41:00.000+09:00

The First half of what Kenny and I have to do in a few weeks

April

2007-04-30T20:49:00.000+09:00

April has been a very tiring and rewarding month. My kids are starting to speak in English and seem to be starting to understand that the letters I keep showing them have the meaning of the sounds I repeat daily to them. My class has grown to 7 kids. Four girls, Michelle, Emily, Chris & Kara and 3 boys, Daniel, Bryan and Harry Potter...don't call him Harry. I think my boys are pretty funny because they act just like both my little brothers. Bryan refuses to lose at anything and Danny always acts like a goof ball and is not a very big fan of work.

Although I feel like I am doing too much work at times I am definitely taking pride in the fact that I have taught my kids all of the English they know. It amazes me how fast they are learning and although they still speak a lot of Korean they will bust out a full sentence of English and they pick up words that I just use in basic conversation, not even things I have taught them.

April seems like it has been a transition time in in Suji. Tara, Joanna & Laura are all leaving soon and we will be getting two new teachers at our school starting on Wednesday. Since Tara is leaving on Thursday we made a trip last weekend down to Ulsan to visit some of her friends. We had a big Friday night and then went over to Busan, the second biggest city in Korea the next day. In Busan we went to our first Korean baseball game. It was $2 to get into the game, the game was packed and the fans basically sang like soccer fans for the full 9 innings. It was also pretty crazy to see cheerleaders dancing on the dugout the entire time.

This last weekend we went over to Vivaldi Park, northeast of Seoul for our Biannual staff retreat. It was up in the mountains so it took a few hours to get to but we just explored a bit on Friday night and then played some video games at the arcade. On Saturday, we got up early and went down to the waterpark which was inside our hotel and then over to the sauna upstairs from the waterpark. The highlight of the sauna was definitely the 220 degree traditional sauna that left me covered in sweat after only four minutes. Saturday night we had a big night filled with Noray Bong and then Taras last big night out in Korea which left all of the girls feeling horrible for the entire next day.

Things are going well in Korea overall, we are booking a trip to North Korea tomorrow so that should be interesting in June. Also, Ken, Tyler John & myself will be going to Vietnam in July. Finally, the other big news is the fact that Ken and I were promoted to the intermediate salsa class and with that comes a performance in front of 300 people....yikes

Annyeong

Black Day

2007-04-06T09:08:00.000+09:00

Seeing how Black Day is coming up next week I thought I would give you the rundown of all the special Korean holidays...they appear to have one made up holiday every month, if only we could get the day off of work for these days....

January 14th - Diary Day
Couples are meant to give each other a diary or year planner thing, and note down all the rest of these lovely gift-giving days.

February 14th - Valentine's Day
In contrast to Western society, today is traditionally when women give chocolates to their men and confess their love.

March 14th - White Day
Men give candy to the women they love (and flowers and choc and cuddly toys....in fact, anything really!)

April 14th - Black Day
A purely Korean day, for those singletons out there, who havnt received choc or candy so far, console yourselves by eating ja jang myun - a black noodle soup - or other black foods.

May 14th - Rose Day / Yellow Day
Couples exchange roses, and those lonely hearts gather for curry and companionship. Apparently dressing in yellow is also recommended.

June 14th - Kiss Day
As one site puts it: 'Lovers confess their feelings to one another and kiss passionately.' Just another excuse to make out really!!

July 14th - Silver Day
I'm liking this idea - couples can freely ask their friends to give them money to pay for a date! (I shall call this 'free date day'!!) Couples exchange gifts made of silver, and announce their relationship to their friends.

August 14th - Green Day
Couples are supposed to dress in green, and walk outside in the woods (ooh camouflage opportunity!)
Singles drink a (green) bottle of soju to console themselves.

September 14th - Photo & Music Day (I'm really not making these up!)
Any guesses...?! Couples take photographs together, then in the evening go out with friends to noraebangs and night clubs. (Which is what we Westerners do every week, right?!)

October 24th - Apple Day
You ready to learn something? The Korean word for apple, sa-kwa, also means to apologize. On Apple Day, friends, family and couples give an apple to each other to apologize for past mistakes.

November 11th - Pepero Day (Ah yes, the choc stick day!)
A new day that has taken off in South Korea, it is named after a pencil-shaped cookie stick covered in chocolate, given mostly by young Koreans as an expression of their affection.
The 11th day of the 11th month is specifically chosen as the number looks like a Pepero stick. Students exchange the treats with one another with the thought of growing tall and thin (an obsession in Korea, tho don't think eating choc cookies is gonna help there...!)

November 14th - Movie Day & Orange Day
Ok, i'm not even gonna explain this one!

December 14th - Hug Day
We actually met people in Seoul giving out free hugs last year! Couples are meant to hug one another lovingly to stay warm in the cold winter months.

Omma, Uppa and 2 Oppas

2007-03-31T11:40:00.000+09:00

So things at my school have been pretty busy but everything has been going well. I have added two boys to my kindergarten bringing my grand total to six. Brian is a really quiet boy that doesn't know too much but he seemed to catch on to the manners part of English because he always says, 'excuse me' 'thank you' 'you're welcome' 'may I go to the bathroom' and a whole array of other polite phrases that are strange to hear from a 4 year old that cant tell me what sound the letter B makes. Most of the other kids in my class are doing well, Michelle who has recently changed her name from Alice has emerged as the strongest English speaker in the class with the strongest vocabulary and being the only one that is confident with her letter sounds. The other new boy Harry is quite the headphone (what we call the kids that are clueless). He speaks Korean to me all the time and I would answer his questions the first few days which has just turned into a disaster because he always just speaks Korean now even when I know that he knows what the English words for the question he is asking is.

My other classes in the school have been going quite well and basically everyone in all of my classes did great on their first tests with me save Jim due to the fact that his mom doesn't make him do any of his homework and he has been resisting learning how to read for five years..."the downfall of working at a private school..."

Last week was finally the time when my family got to come visit, this worked out great for me because I was able to get a day and a half off from school. I met them on Thursday afternoon after the spent some time in Beijing and it was a very good visit. Thursday, we just caught up a bit and then we took a quick cab over to Gangnam and had Turkish food, kind of strange for Korea I think, but it is also one of the best restaurants Ive been to in Korea. Coming back from Gangnam they would not let us all into one cab so we were forced to take two. My brothers and I hopped into one cab and and made it back to the hotel quick. My parents on the other hand had a bit of trouble and it took them a phone call to a translator and 20minutes to get back rather that 5.

On Friday, we got up and watched the NCAA tournament games in Korean....and then we were off to Itaewon to do a bit of shopping. Bryan got some pants made and my mom bought some jewelry, all the while Dano was urging for a quick move over to the DVD market. When we got to the DVD market (of which Dano made two stops on his visit to Korea) Danny instantly decided that the 50 or so DVDs he bought in China were quite enough and he was just getting excessive so no more DVDs were needed.........j/k. Danny and I bought 20 or so more DVDs and then we were off to Insadong, the arts district in Seoul where we had beer galbi, Korean BBQ for lunch and then watched a drunk Korean lady try to kill herself by passing out in the middle of the road while my mom bought a vase or something.

After Insadong, there was just enough time to make it back to Suji so that my family could see the school and meet my smartest kids. Unfortunately, my really smart kids got super shy and didnt say a word when my family was there we took a few picture and then went back to see my apartment.

After viewing the apartment in was off to dinner in Suji with (Laura, David, Tara, Ken, Barb, John Bannon, Tyler, Alice (our office manager, her son Ian, and then Sang Kyu, Yon Mee and their two kids Stephanie and So Yong) we ate Dalk (Chicken Galbi) and drank a fair share or Beer and Rice wine( of which my mom became a huge fan of. Dinner lasted a while and it then naturally progressed over to the Batman bar before finally ending a the Noray Bong. Everyone besides the old man partook in the singing with the mic. The highlights were Bryan singing Nas and Danny singing Numb/Encore, I'm not sure what my mom was singing but Im sure her songs were just to numerous to count.

On Saturday, we got up & Tyler, Bryan, Danny, my Dad and I went to have a western breakfast at a Canadian restaurant in Itaewon. Afterwards it over to the Korean War Museum where my mom met up, (she was feeling ill from the 'galbi') we spent a few hours there and then headed back to the hotel to hang out before we caught a cab over to the Seoul World Cup Stadium to watch the Korean Mens National Team play Uruguay. All of the Koreans playing in Europe were there and they played quite well in the first half, unfortunately Uruguay got a few lucky breaks and that coupled with the fact that the Koreans couldn't shoot caused the affair to end 2-0 in favor of Uruguay. As we were leaving with 3minutes to go we heard a big roar from the crowd and at first thought that Korea had scored but the next day I found out that it had actually just been a couple drunk foreigners running out on the field....

Sunday was the last day I would spend in Korea with Bryan and the old man. We went to see on of the castles in Seoul which was a bit disappointing, the other one I had been to was much better. Later we went and had Egyptian for lunch. The owner didnt have a credit card machine and we originally believe we didn't have enough money so he told us that the next time we were in Itaewon to come pay him, a novel idea in Korea that would never happen at home, especially with foreigners....Afterwards it was Bonn Voyage to Oldman and Bryan and I went back to Suji to sleep for work the next day...

On Monday, Dano and my mom came down to Suji again and my mom sat in on one of my classes where I taught Phonic while Dano helped Tara with her gym class. Both classes went really well. After the classes we went out to lunch and they tried Mandu (dumplings) and Gimbop (California Rolls) the staples of Korean fast food. Sang Kyu offered to take them to the Korean folk village. He took them to the village and was then nervous about how they would get back to Seoul so he ended up staying for the entire time they were there. That night Tyler and I met Danny and My mom for Italian food before saying goodbye and wishing them a good trip home.....I just sorry my mom didn't get another chance to enjoy the rice wine she loves so much and Im sure Bryan is very sad he cant eat Korean food everyday.........

Salsa

2007-03-11T22:37:00.000+09:00

Pretty Funny

Swayze Dancing @ Membership Training

2007-03-11T22:28:00.000+09:00

One of the funniest and strangest nights of my life

Graduation & Cherry Class

2007-03-09T21:23:00.000+09:00

The last days on Bright Class were really fun we basically just played around for the last two days of class, we did a lot of musical chairs, freeze dancing, games, arts & crafts and basically all the things that 5 year olds consider fun.

That weekend Laura and I were asked to come in and review the new kids that would be entering our school the following week. We did a quick 5 minute review with each kid and basically assessed what class they should be in. The kids were all really shy and their English levels were all pretty low although there were a few bright spots.
Since we came in on Saturday Sang Kyu decided to take us out to lunch afterwards. We went over to a Chinese restaurant near our school. I was looking through the menu and I recognized the Korean word for Shark. I asked the Koreans and it turned out that they had Shark soup on the menu. I decided to try some and I have to say I know why it is a delicacy, the stuff was really good.

The following Tuesday, at graduation all of my kids were dressed up and really excited, they were basically going nuts and wouldn't let me go sit down in my seat, Sang Kyu said a few things and then we all went up on stage and bowed. Tyler gave a commencement speech and then the kids came up on stage, we gave them a diploma and then took a picture with each kid individually. After the graduation was done I took a class picture and then got some presents for Selyn and Sonny, Cologne and a dozen roses etc....

After graduation, we went back to the school and I reluctantly changed classes, move my things out of Bright Class and down to Cherry Class. We set up our rooms for a while and then were out of there to enjoy the next two days which would be national holidays.

The next day was Wednesday, we didn't have school and it also happened to be the night of Salsa class for Ken & I. The Koreans in our class usually go out for an hour or so for a drink after class so I thought it might be much of the same with them staying out for maybe an hour longer. What actually transpired was the most Soju (Korean Rice Liquor) I have ever seen consumed in one sitting in my entire life. When we finally got up to leave at 6am there were still 30 people hanging around from our class making up promise that we would meet them to play basketball and soccer the next day at 10am. Needless to say we didn't make it.

That Friday we had our first classes of the new year. My kindergarten consists of 4year olds, the more advanced class, Kierstie has the bigger and less advanced class. The odd thing about my class is the fact they are all girls and there are only 4 of them. It was a bit weird at first but I think they will move fast. I got to name them I after a lot of changing and my offering up about 200 names they settled on Chris, Emily, Kara and Alice. They were really low when they first came in but they are improving extremely quickly and it is nice that everything they know Ive taught them. The past week with them has been frustrating at times because they speak Korean to me consistently and it is a pain to keep telling them the correct phrases in English and translating there Korean. I also really miss my old class because they were so fun and advanced, the fact that they come down to my class everyday and tell me that they love and miss me doesn't help the situation but I think that they will do well with Barb. As for the new girls I am getting a bit sick of doing the ABC's and not being able to speak to them in English but they all seem to be pretty bright and they're all very cute....

My afternoon classes have changed as well. For my E1's I have five kids that were previously in kindergarten with Shauna and Kierstie. Their levels are descent but they are all really cool kids. The kids do their work but it is a really fun class and I really enjoy teaching them unlike the previous class I had at this time. There are five of them Julia Gulia, Sandy Candy, Sally Sally Upside Down, Jim Bop (Gim Bop is Korean fast food) and Thomas (Tommy Boy). They were on a kick with nicknames so everyone in that class has one. They are improving quickly and they seem to really like coming to school which is always good.

In the final class of MWF I lost Eric who went to a new school, Woojin (my previous favorite kid who moved to Bundang, he was really sad and we had a big party on his last day). Joycey and Suzanne remain in my class and in addition I've added three of Laura's kids, Mark, James and Brian. Mark is a huge jackass but he is funny and I like him. The kid is about 10years old but has some peach fuzz on his face so he basically looks like Michael J Fox from Teen Wolf. I call him Teen Wolf but he doesn't seem to like it very much. James is a very smart kid and he has come up from a much lower class. I is a struggle for him but he seems to rarely repeat a mistake. The final new kid is Brian who is also a funny kid and a solid addition to the class.

My final class is a Tuesday, Thursday with one kid Eugene. This kid in 6 and has just graduated kindergarten. His level is pretty low but he is a really outgoing kid and he is extremely obsessed with cars and knows more about them then any young kid I have ever meet. He doesn't like English school but they set in up as a science class but only in English, basically tricky him into learning English. Its a really fun class and I think we are going to build a volcano in the next few weeks.

Other than that things are good, I bought season tickets to the Suwon Blue Wings, the K-League (Korean Soccer) team near our town. We are going away for a party weekend with the Salsa people this weekend and then there should be another big weekend for St Pattys Day.

Well it is Friday night and Tara & Laura are here with chicken on a stick. I am going to be brave and tell Laura that a plate in completely crazy for chicken on a stick but Ill probably be punched...later......

Mak Bag E

2007-03-08T01:11:00.001+09:00

This is the hottest comedy in Korea right now....if you mention MakBagEe to any kid under fifteen they will immediately start hitting themselves in the face like this.....details and pics of my new class and graduation are coming tomorrow...

Drama Festival

2007-02-26T20:36:00.000+09:00

The drama festival went quite well for my kids. All in all they did not drop that many lines and the parents even laughed at a few of the jokes I put in about Suji and kimchi. There was an issue with the lights for a bit and the spotlight went out for a few seconds but they kept going even with the lights off. Of the minor issues which occurred during the play there was Sonny saying his lines at the speed of light, Eric pushing Amy out of the way when it was time for him to say his lines and then Eric again saying that his favorite part of Kid's College was Laura teacher because she was crazy. Even with the few mishaps The Jack Family and the Kimchi Plant seemed to go off with out a hitch.

After the play I felt like a rock star because I probably had my picture taken 200 times including class pictures, individual picture with each of my students and then some with combinations of students, there family members......the family dog etc.... When we finally did get out of there to a Tofu restaurant I almost felt sorry for Britney Spears fighting off the paparazzi.

The drama festival came at the end of the year due to the fact that the Korean school year ends on February 27 and starts again on March 1 (the kids get their summer vacation in the middle of their school year). Since the school year in ending that means that half of our school will be enrolling in Korean 1st grade and therefore we have 4classes of children coming in that need to be placed. This meant that Laura and I were asked to come in on Saturday and evaluate all the new students (also we were being evaluated by the parents because if they don't like how the teachers look of act they will move their children to a new school before the start of school). While I will be taking a class of 4year olds I interviewed all the 5year olds while Laura took the 4year olds. There was quite a large array of abilities from kids that could read and understand me to children that didn't understand what an A was. Laura had a boy that thought the answer to every English question she asked was "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." The evaluations went well and I am very thankful I will be getting the higher level 4year olds starting on Friday. After work we went with the Koreans from our school to get food and I had my first Shark Fin Soup, which was actually very good.

Today was the last day for Bright Class as they will become the highest level in the school and will move up to Barbara. Most of the kids cried and said they didn't want to go. Sonny told me that I was his best friend and Selyn said she was going to forget her English so she could come down to my class. It made me really sad that I won't be their teacher after graduation tomorrow. I am also sad for the fact that all the classrooms are changing and since I will have the babies I will be moving to Cherry Class (the classroom closest to the bathroom). Other than that I will have my last day as the teacher of Bright Class tomorrow at graduation and then I get to start naming Korean kids after people on Friday so leave a comment and you could have a Korean version of yourself.......

Pre Play Video

2007-02-23T22:57:00.001+09:00

Here is what my kids were doing before the play started...they did great and there is info to follow....

Drama Pics

2007-02-23T22:43:00.000+09:00

Tokyo

2007-02-20T17:25:00.000+09:00

Since this weekend was the Salal (Lunar New Year) in Korea I decided to take a quick 3 day trip over to Tokyo just to see some sites. We woke up early on Friday and made the flight over to Narita Airport. The airport is about an hour outside the city so we hoped on the subway and got into Asakusa where our hostel was. We walked around for a bit grabbed a few pictures in front of the Asakusa shrine

and then walked through the market and then into a Sushi shop to get some dinner. I have never been much of a Sushi guy but I ate it twice in Japan and it was basically the only affordable food (about $1 a plate and it was really good.

After dinner we had a few drinks back at our hostel and then took a cab which cost around $50 for a trip to Roponggi. This area was like Itaewon (the foreigner district of Seoul) but on crack. There were foreigners and scantly dressed Japanese everywhere and the lights were insane. We walked around and went into a few bars and then saw a place called "Bar Milwaukee." Having gone to school in Milwaukee John and I insisted on entering. I bought a beer and then looked around and thought it was a bit strange that there were no girls in the entire bar. Then I realized where I was when I looked on the televisions and walls and saw nothing but half naked men. We finished our beers quickly and moved to a new bar.

The next bar we went to was full of Croatians and a lot of really aggressive Japanese girls. I think the may have been prostitutes but I'm not really sure because the Japanese girls were all very aggressive and confident, not at all nervous about talking to foreigners like Koreans are. We had a good time at this bar but the Croatians were insane about their drink or leave policy and would walk around the dance floor looking to make sure everyone had a drink in their hands.

We spent the next few hours moving from bar to bar, usually recruited into a place by some Nigerians who promised $5 drinks and no cover when in actually we were expected to pay $8 and sometimes more (Tokyo is really the most expensive city I have ever been to. Finally around 2.30-3am we found a place with some really cool Japanese people. We stayed there until the wee hours of the morning.

The next morning we all had a rough morning but pushed through and walked to the subway where we saw the Tokyo marathon.

We watched the people for a bit and then grabbed breakfast at Denny's of all places and then it was on the subway to see the Imperial Palace, which was mostly closed and unimpressive.

We then got back on the subway and went over to see the Yasakuni war shrine, the controversial shrine that commemorates Japanese war criminals that committed atrocities against most of the neighbors before and during World War II. Needless to say Japan is not so popular here in Korea.

Next door to the war shrine was the Japanese World War II museum and they had a Zero inside. It was the coolest thing we saw on the trip but it felt a bit weird, maybe a bit like Japanese people being at Pearl Harbor, just on on edge feeling about being there. I thought about going with the Korean tradition of stealing valuables from Japanese museums and bringing them back to Korea because of how the Japanese destroyed and stole the artifacts over the centuries but the security had his eye on me so I couldn't...

The rest of Korea was pretty relaxed and had a bit more Sushi and then some more drinks before it was time to return to good old Korea on Monday.....

Drama

2007-02-16T19:20:00.000+09:00

So I haven't really posted recently because my life in Korea has consisted of one thing. Practicing the drama/play that the kids have to perform in front of their parents next week. We have been doing this thing at least twice a day for the past 3 weeks and the kids are quite sick of it but this is how schools make and break their reputations in Korea so I guess it is a necessity. Last weekend we had a big party in Suji and not arriving until 1am coupled with $1 shots at the bar materialized into a 7am arrival at home.

Although I am quite sick of the whole drama and basically worn out we do get a three day weekend due to Lunar New Year this weekend. Tyler, Joanna, John and I will be heading to Tokyo for a few days and so that should be good.

Also, because of the drama festival etc...I will only have a 3day work week for the following two weeks after which time some of the kids will graduate and we will have all new kids. Unfortunately, this means that these new kids need to be evaluated next Saturday morning which leaves me (along with Laura) the people to do it....My only solace is having the Soju fridge waiting for me.....

Salsa

2007-02-08T20:32:00.000+09:00

So Ken and I have been hearing about how good a time Salsa dancing is from Hee Jun, a friend of a friend we met through David. I'm not normally a dance guy but I figured it would be good to learn and would give me something to do on Wednesday night. We were a bit late meeting Hee Jun at Gangnam Station because traffic was bad so we rushed over to the dance studio right away. When we walked it it was quite intimidating because since we were the only non-Koreans in the place we stood out like a soar thumb, everyone basically stopped and stared at us. The lesson went quite well and I didn't have to be helped with my steps, unlike Ken, sorry buddy....

After the dancing part we were told to sit in two circles and went around speaking to the other people in the class. It was a rocky start because the first three people I spoke with had very poor English but the rest of the time went pretty well.

After the class we were invited to go to a bar called "Better than Beer" where the class meets after every week. This place was basically a Korean version on Hooters which was pretty hilarious. When we first sat down we were surrounded by people asking how we had heard about the place and later were told that of the 50 or so classes we are the first foreigners ever to take the class. It seemed like the people were pretty excited about having us there and there were tons of people I met that seemed really cool.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet the one guy I wanted to, the mere sight of him brought Kenny and I to laughter. Think a skinny version of Patrick Swayzee from Dirty Dancing. Mullet and all, this guy thought he was the coolest thing in this bar....photos will come soon.

Eat Your Kimchi!!!!

2007-02-06T15:48:00.001+09:00

Kimchi, also spelled gimchi or kimchee, is a traditional Korean dish of fermented vegetables seasoned with chili peppers and salt.

The word's archaic pronunciation was chim-chae (Hangul: 침채; Hanja: 沈菜), meaning "steeped/submerged vegetable". However, since the pronunciation's change, kimchi is no longer associated with its original Hanja

In Korea, kimchi is served with most regular meals, and is also used as an ingredient in cooking, including kimchi jjigae (kimchi soup), kimchi bokkeumbap (kimchi fried rice), and other dishes. Kimchi is also very popular in China, Japan, and in the eastern-most regions of Russia (especially Sakhalin island), where the dish is still known by its archaic name chim-chae (Russian: чим ча).

Though there are hundreds of variations, most types of kimchi tend to have a strong, spicy, tangy flavour and odour.

History

Early forms of kimchi consisted mainly of salted greens. Chili peppers, now a standard ingredient in kimchi, were unknown in Korea until the early 17th century, when they were introduced from Japan or China, where they had been introduced by western traders. Traditionally, kimchi was fermented in pots buried in the ground, to serve as a winter subsistence staple when fresh vegetables were not available.

A cookbook from 1670 describes pickled mixtures of wild greens and pickled gourd melons, but makes no reference to the use of chilis. One historical record from the end of the 17th century describes eleven types of kimchi and thus kimchi utilizing red peppers would have been popularized some years after that (200 years, by one estimate). In addition, the introduction of Chinese cabbage probably did not occur until the 19th century; before that, kimchi was made from indigenous vegetables.

Composition

The basic ingredient is usually a variety of Chinese cabbage called napa cabbage (배추, baechu) and/or white radish (무, mu), seasoned with chili pepper (빨간고추, ppalgangochu), garlic, scallion, ginger, salt, and sugar. Seafood-based seasoning is often added, such as oyster or anchovy-based broth (젓갈, jeotgal).

While the most popular type of kimchi is the napa cabbage variety, countless different types exist, including regional and seasonal varieties. Popular variants include kkakdugi (깍두기), based on cubed radish without cabbage, and oh-ee so-bae-gi (오이소배기), stuffed cucumber kimchi. Kkaennip (깻잎) kimchi features layers of perilla leaves marinated in soy sauce and other spices. The Kimchi Field Museum in Seoul has documented 187 historic and current varieties of kimchi.
Health effects

Kimchi was profiled by Health Magazine as one of the world's five "healthiest foods" for being rich in vitamins, aiding in digestion, and even possibly preventing cancer. The health properties of kimchi are due to a variety of factors. Most types of kimchi contain common ingredients like onions, garlic and peppers all of which have well-known health benefits. The main vegetable being made into kimchi also contributes to the overall nutritional value. Kimchi is rich in vitamin A, thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), calcium and iron and also has active and beneficial bacterial cultures of Lactobacilli which results in a higher lactic acid content in the final product than in yoghurt.

The low number of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) cases in Korea is sometimes attributed to the Korean habit of eating large quantities of kimchi, although no definitive link has been established. There is some evidence that indicates that kimchi may be used to treat avian influenza in birds.

Some studies have linked its consumption to a reduced risk of gastric cancer,but other studies have linked consumption of certain types of kimchi (containing radish) to an increased cancer risk. The high nitrate salt concentrations in fermented Korean foods, such as kimchi and soybean pastes, have been suggested as a possible cause. However, talc, an irritant used in white rice in both countries has been posed as a possible alternative cause.
Trivia

* Most Koreans store kimchi in a separate refrigerator that is designed to keep kimchi at an optimal temperature for proper fermentation.

* When taking photographs, South Koreans often say the word "kimchi" in much the same way English speakers would use the word "cheese".

* The South Korean Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) are hoping to have the first Korean in space to experiment with kimchi while aboard the Russian-manned space ship Soyuz. KARI has developed a space-safe kimchi recipe by sterilizing the food with radiation blasts, heat, freezing and packaging.

Super Bowl :(

2007-02-05T21:41:00.000+09:00

So this weekend I bought a bears jersey for $20, you can get any jersey her for $20 so there may be a few more purchases. So anyway I had planned to avoid all internet sites that might have shown the game and then go into Seoul to watch it at a bar since the original broadcast was at 8.00am Monday for me and I would have missed the second half because of work.

So I make it through the entire day and right before my last class I decided to check my email. The only email I have is some Spam from Finish Line asking me if I want to but an Indianapolis Colts Super Bowl Championship T-Shirt. So screw Finish Line......I just watched it at home on the internet but games just aren't as good when you know the final score....oh and Rex Grossman sucks also.....

Open Class

2007-01-31T21:03:00.000+09:00

Tuesday was my first open class. This is where all the kids have their moms come in and in some cases their grandmothers (their fathers are invited but lets face it this is Korea and men don't take off work for something like this.) I got to school the earliest I ever have this year in order to prepare for this class. I used this time to pound some coffee and then cleaned up and finished decorating my room.

The open class takes place during the second class of the day so some teachers use the first class as a trial run for what they are planning on teaching. I was doing Phonics and Math during my open class and I didn't want my kids to rush through it before the time was up so I decided to wing it. I did give them a quick once over of addition with three digit numbers but 2-3 problems isn't enough for most kids to grasp that new material, or at least that is what I thought.

When I walked in the room for the second class it was a bit nerve racking at first because I had 16sets of eyes, on me rather than the normal eight and everyone was seated quietly rather than running down the hall to me as usual.

My kids were all insanely quiet during class which was a big problem because their parents wanted to see how they had progressed with their speaking. Sonny and Abby who are usually talking nonstop hardly said a word. The other issue was Eric who thought he was being cute decided to answer everyone else's questions and I had to yell at him twice in front of his mom until she grabbed him and told him something in Korean that made him shut up for the rest of class.

The open class went very well and although my kids didn't talk as much as I or their moms would have liked they did impress will the quickness that they learned prefixes and addition of three digit numbers. Basically, they went over 3pages of Phonics and 2 pages of Math and started reading their play by the time the bell rang 45minutes later. The moms told Saeng Gyu that they were happy with me as a teacher afterwards and all my kids were in class on Wednesday so I guess I couldn't have done to badly in there.

I am also excited that the longest month in history is about to end...January has seemed like it has gone on forever and Thailand seems like months ago rather than just thirty days.

Finally, we had presentations for my E1 and E2 classes today and I think it is a good thing that all the classes will be changing in March. While I really like all the kids in these classes and the E1'd did fine with their presentations, the E2's were horribly prepared and 3/4 didn't even have their speeches memorized. I think the issue stems from the fact that I went really hard on my E2 in the beginning and then relaxed a ton on them. This worked out well until January when I got two new kids for whom it has been a cakewalk. Since they never had a tough time with the rules as the other two did in the beginning they don't feel that I will really do anything when they don't do their homework. I guess they got the idea today when I took away the game time I had promised them but I was still embarassing that none of them were prepared while the other kids in the school were good to go........

Manners Class

2007-01-23T20:15:00.000+09:00

Once a year the school hires an Adjema to come into the classes and teach them how to receive tea, bow and basically do all the highly respectful things that Koreans do on a daily basis in the correct way (basically the charm school I was threatened with for the first 12-14years of my life came to fruition with my kindergartners.

What makes the day pretty fun is that all the kids come dressed in traditional Korean outfits. Basically decked from head to toe in what Korean people wore up until the turn of the century. This was made even better due to the fact that the Korean teachers brought in their Korean outfits so that the English teachers could wear them as well. While these things don't look especially comfortable for the ladies I have to say that the Korean men were on to something with the amount of flexibility you get with these pants even if they are pink.....enough said....here is the wedding picture that Laura and I took since we were both dressed in traditional wedding suits....

The kids were really cute and they picked up really quickly on the differences between bows for men and women and the height you are supposed to bow to depending on who you are bowing to.

The funny part came when the instructor had everyone in my class kneel down to receive tea as you would from an elder. First off I was sitting with my legs crossed so my kids had a big laugh that I hadn't listened to the directions and didn't kneel. The best part came when she poured out the tea for the kids. The second that Lucy got get tea she said Gambae (Cheers) and then pounded it. The lady didn't like this very much and she got a pretty quick snap but it was pretty funny.....

Here is Bright Class...for our class picture...Im really sad that they will be getting a new teacher in March :(....

From the Left:
Top: Sarah, Selyn, Amy Eric & Sonny
Bottom: Philip, Abby & Lucy

Sweet Home Korea

2007-01-16T19:59:00.000+09:00

We got back to Korea from Thailand basically exhausted from the lack of sleep on New Years and took the bus back to unpack and rest in Suji. Unfortunately, we were forced to go to work the next day so as Tyler and I zombied through work Christie and Sarah rested a bit and explored some Suji.

While they were here we introduced them to all types of Korean food, Mandu, Gimbop, Duck and Pork Galbi (their favorite turned out to be Xiabu Xiabu) and mixed that in with some foreign food, Italian, Vietnamese etc... and gave them the introduction to the co-workers. They went into Seoul for the first time by themselves on Thursday where they spent most of the day shopping and walking around. On Friday, Christie and Sarah came into our classes and met our kids. The kids went nuts and it became apparent to them that our jobs aren't all cuteness and glamour...hah. Christie believed that Eric was my cutest kid, I personally think he is the most obnoxious, I think that she now feels the same way after he gave her a boob squeeze and tried to put a sticker on her crotch when she came into visit again on Monday, I swear I get one new kid and he turns out to be a perve.

On Friday we experienced all the highlights of Suji....Loss Time "For the Good Old Boys est.1999" for happy hour. This was followed by Galbi for dinner and then across the street to Beer Hunter, the usual Friday night meeting place for foreigners. Afterwards, we went over to check out the Korean staple of a night out with a stop off at the Noray Bong for some private karaoke....if anyone wants to know Christie and Sarah are REALLY good singers.....

Saturday we went in Sinchon and met up with Laura and her friends, we then walked to a bar called Club Aura which was having its final night before it closed and had some very weird looking individuals singing on stage.....the night may have been more exciting but the temperature was so cold that the thought of going outside sent shivers up my spine. The weekend culminated with a trip into Seoul on Sunday to get brunch at the Canadian bar Rocky Mountain Tavern and then to the Yongsan Electronics Market for some DVDs. After shopping with the girls we took a cab to Gangnam and had dinner at Pasha, a Turkish restaurant.

When the girls left on Tuesday it was very sad and Tyler actually broke down and was bawling hysterically, I actually had to slap him in the face to get him to get his composure....

Since they left there have been a few new developments in Korea....

I have a new class on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, I have two kids, Gus and Harry. All we are meant to do in this class in read a story and then present it at the end of the month. The story is pretty boring but the kids are fun so it works out...

Bright Class has begun practicing their play that they have to preform at the end of February for their parents. It is nice because I can really see the progress of the kids that can read well. I can also see the ones that can hardly read at all and it is kind of scary because I have an open class in two weeks where all of the children will have their mothers' in the class watching me teach for an hour....I still am clueless on what I am going to teach to make sure nobody flies through the assignment while the others are completely lost....

My roommate John from college recently arrived on the pennisula to start working in Seoul. He seems to like his kids and we only live about 45minutes away from each other so there will be a lot of hanging out with him in the coming months....the highlights of him being here already involve some Kiwis (New Zealanders) a lot of Tequila, a lost cellphone (not mine or Johns), a destroyed garbage can and a missed train to Japan....want details, email me, sorry folks my grandma reads this stuff...

Finally, I am going to Japan for Chinese New Year in February. Anyone know what there is to do in Tokyo....

Bright Class Pumps It Up

2007-01-12T08:54:00.001+09:00

I have to much time on my hands....

New Years

2007-01-11T20:58:00.000+09:00

The trip back to Bangkok was much smoother and more comfortable than the trip the other way. We arrived back at Khao San Rd at about 6.30 thanks to our driver getting lost and doing a few u-turns on the highway. We were driving through many of the places where the bombs went off only a few minutes before so that may have been a good thing. When we got back to Khao San Rd we walked around for about 15minutes and then settled on a place upstairs from an Indian restaurant. The place was clean and around $10 a room so we jumped on it.

which apparently has a lot of We went out and did some shopping, purchasing the last minute t-shirts and such and then headed to get our last meal of Thai food. I got the hottest Phad Thai they had and it was probably the spiciest thing I have ever had. After dinner we walked around a bit more, I bought a wallet that the vendor swore to me was made of Elephant Skin (who knew Elephant Leather could only be $2??)

We started to have some drinks and the night just took off from there. We started hitting up the stands....

these stands sell alcohol in buckets mixed with Thai red bull which has a lot of amphetamines, I didn't think they were that bad at first but later in the night they hit me like a frieght train....

At midnight we were in a little place down a pretty posh alley and there wasn't really a countdown, they just dropped balloons and gave out poppers. I had bought 15 balloons from some lady to carry around but the security in the alley wouldn't let me bring them in.

We went around from bar to bar for most of the night, eating and drinking....here is a picture of Sarah and Christie being sad because they are eating their last banana pancake in Thailand. (It became probably their favorite would while we were there and many a late night was spent wandering the road(see no plural) of Ko Chang...

After a long night out and some more Phad Thai from this lady...

who became my good friend and took a picture with me......coming soon via Christie's camera it was time to head back to the airport sometime around 4am. It was a long couple of hours in the airport and then with the stopover in Taipai but it was still good to be back in Korea....unfortunately we had to work the next day and it was freezing compared to Thailand.

Here are a few more pictures of Thailand and the Tuk-Tuk video by request.....

Ko Chang

2007-01-08T22:33:00.001+09:00

We arrived on White Sand beach in Ko Chang at about 12.30 on Wednesday the 27th and quickly started the relaxing. We walked into the first beach Bungalow area and saw the rooms, they seemed really nice, but the guy wanted $30 a night. We gave him a quick "No" and walked down the beach a bit. As we were walking in and out of places we saw some people from Suji, they recommended a place where they had been staying for two nights and said that it cost them about $12 a night. The place was fairly clean, we had our own (cold) showers and there were no bugs. All in all a great place to stay considering our doors were fifteen feet from the beach. The first day consisted of swimming, lounging on the beach, drinking beer and eating cheap Thai food, basically the way I had envisioned my vacation. This is the view from our beach....

and here it is at night....

The next day we got up, sat on the beach for a while and then decided to go snorkeling. Since we were being pretty lazy we decided to just go with the first place that offered snorkeling which also happened to be a little shack on the beach. We paid the guy a few bucks and he took us out on a boat and then we drove for about an hour out to an island. Unfortunately, the place he took us snorkeling was not very good, granted we did not take the time to go down to the south of the island where the best snorkeling is but the visibility and the snorkeling equipment were both pretty bad. We returned to our familiar beach and sat around eating seafood pad Thai, watching fire lanterns go off into the ocean and sipping on cocktails....

The next day we woke up and rented mopeds, these things cost about $5 a day to rent and liters of gas could be purchased for about a dollar all over the island although they were old liquor bottles that the people poured into our gas tanks. As you can see they were pink but since I am comfortable with my manliness they are still sweet.

We drove these things all the way to the southern part of the island, through some extremely steep mountain roads that sometimes forced me to put my feet on the ground and push it up. On the other hand I was able to get my scooter up to 60mph a couple times with Christie on the back when we had an open straight away.
We drove down past the hippy huts that cost a dollar a night and were open to the elements to the most southern part of the island where the paved road ends. There we sat on a beach that had maybe 20 people on a 2 mile stretch. We just hung out a bit and some people tanned while others such as myself got some extremely bad sun burn. Here is a view on our drive down south...

Here is a view at our personal beach....

When the sun was getting low we drove back and had a late lunch at a restaurant hanging over a cliff...

That night we bar crawled up the beach, eating seafood and pad Thai along the way, basically every restaurant had chairs in the sand so I decided to leave my sandals at home. We did snap some pictures at sunset though.....

For our final full day on Ko Chang we took the mopeds again and drove south down to one of the waterfalls. Since we were not Thai we had to pay 10x the rate as the Thai people but since Tyler and I still had our student IDs we got a 50% discount while Sarah and Christie were forced to pay full price. We hiked the half mile into the woods and then reached the waterfall. Since it was about 90degrees out we jumped in and the water hit up as quiet a shock because it was pretty cold....

After the waterfall which we spent a few hours at we hiked back to the main area and then took the mopeds over and had lunch. A few more hours were spent on the beach and then Tyler and I decided to go for a ride while the girls got ready. We stopped at a market meant mainly for Thai people and walked around a bit. At one of the food vendors we saw this....

If you cant tell they are grasshoppers and beetles....naturally I bought a bag of grasshoppers for about $.50 and then quickly got back on the mopeds to go back and try them in front of the girls. Tyler and I both had juicy ones, pictures will be coming shorty. Sarah refused to try them but here is the picture of Christie with her grasshoppers hanging from her mouth. They were actually not that bad and would compare them to sand textured chicken....

After eating grasshoppers, the girls finished getting ready and then it was back on the mopeds a final time to go get a picture at sunset of white sand beach....

That night we went out and had one final dinner in Ko Chang, did some shopping and walked around the beach again. Then it was a melancholy sleep before we got up and headed back to Trat, where we caught a much better VIP bus back into Bangkok for New Years Eve.......

Sarah Grimaldi's Favorite Town in the World (Trat)

2007-01-04T22:04:00.000+09:00

Christmas dinner consisted of Thai food, although it was at a nice restaurant near our hotel it was probably the cheapest Christmas dinner I have ever had in my life. After dinner it was another night on Khao San Rd. We had some beers and then as we were leaving in a Tuk Tuk I bought so dryed squid which is a big hit in Korea and my kids bring it almost daily but I think it is an aquired tasted because I was the only one that ate more than a nibble.

The octopus I bought on the way out was better although it was still open to mixed reviews....

The next day Tyler was up early to go take the GRE on the east side of Bangkok and the rest of us packed up and slept in a bit. After another amazing breakfast and some ESPN MNF in English we grabbed a cab and were off to pick Tyler up from his test. The cab driver was absolutely clueless about where we were trying to go even though the hotel people explained where the building was twice. We drover around for a bit and when we finally located the place we saw Tyler standing out in front. The cab driver stopped to pick him up and then we went directly to the Eastern Bus Terminal where we grabbed the air conditioned bus to Trat province on the Cambodian border.

To call the bus air conditioned is a bit of a stretch, although there was an actual air-conditioner on the bus it was probably built in the 1970s and as a result the cool air only went about 6inches out from the ceiling vent. Although is was December the heat was still pushing 90degrees and as we sat baking in the sun for the 6hour trip things did get a bit uncomfortable (not that Im complaining, it was a fun ride and I slept most of the way)...

When we arrived it Trat, which was clearly a transit town to Ko Chang, we got a Sangthew (pick up truck with benches in the back) from the bus station into the city center. He dropped us off at a hotel that was 500baht or $15 a night. We decided that was way to much for Thailand and walked down the street where we got a nice clean bug free place for only $6 (I would consider Thailand Cockroach Central and I put my total count from my trip at 10, although none of these were ever at a place where I ate or slept). There was not much to do in Trat so we grabbed dinner and went to bed early.

The next morning we got up early and go another Sangthew out to the dock and for $3 got a ferry ride over to Ko Chang. The trip took about an hour and I even saw a pink dolphin on the way although it only came up for a second and couldn't get any air. When we arrived at Ko Chang we took another Sangthew into White Sand Beach aka Paradise for the next 4 days......

It's Good to be the King (of Thailand)

2007-01-03T22:29:00.000+09:00

Christmas morning we woke up pretty early and went downstairs in the Lebua hotel to get our complimentary breakfast. This might have been the most extensive complimentary breakfast I have ever seen in my life and they have some of the weirdest fruits I have ever seen in my life and multi course meals that would please people from pretty much every continent. After stuffing my face with everything from rice, noodles, bacon and an omlette (hey I had to try them all....) We went and got our first experience with a Thai massage. For anyone not familiar with the Thai massage the best way to describe it is like having Yoga done to you. You are not a passive participant as with other types of massage and it leaves you feeling both relaxed and like you just had a workout.

After the massage it was over to the river for the water bus that was to take us up to the tourist sites of Bangkok. We went up about eight stops on the water bus and then got off to see the first place known as Wat Arun named after the Indian God of Dawn. There were tons of emerald Buddhas at this place as you can see here....

Here is another shot of Wat Arun from the outside......

After seeing Wat Arun it was across the river to Wat Pho the home of the largest reclining Buddha in the world. To give you an idea of how large this thing is that little opening at the far end is actually a doorway which is probably twice my height. We walked around the temple grounds for a bit and then it was across the street to check out the royal palace and the kings house. It took almost 20 minutes to walk around to the front gate from the back part and in that time we were told by tons of con men that the palace was closed for the day, although they all seemed to know a place that was even better and undiscovered by tourists....really hard to believe considering most of these places were only 10-15 minutes away.....

From Thailand Chri...

The kings palace was really extravagent and basically everything was lined with gold, emerald of some other shiney metal. We walked around the grounds for about an hour and then as the palaces were closing for the day in was back in a cab to go back to Lebua and prepare for Christmas dinner....
Here is a picture of Christie and I by the main palace. Notice the kimchi in my left hand paying hommage to the many Korean tour groups we passed in there....

The rest of my pictures are up if you go to http://picasaweb.google.com/stephenwynn1 and click on Thailand

Whats the Capital of Thailand? (Bang Cock) Part 1

2007-01-02T18:10:00.000+09:00

We picked the girls up at the airport on the 23rd and because we missed the bus they were not to happy that we arrived 30 minutes after they made it through customs. We grabbed the bus home and then got a midnight snack of mandu and gimbop before going to bed around 1.30. Four hours later, we woke up and got on the bus to Thailand!!!! After the six hour flight to Thialand, we got a cab from the airport to Lebua (State Tower in downtown Bangkok. This hotel is probably the nicest I have ever seen and our room was a suite with a great view and tons of space. Since the girls were tired we napped in the hotel for a bit and then headed over to Khao San rd, the backpacking center of Asia and did some shopping, had some cheap Pad Thai (like $0.50 cheap and then had some drinks. The night culminated with a ride home in a Tuk Tuk (Basically half gokart half motorcycle, See Below) and back to the Hotel. While everyone else was asleep I was woken up at midnight by fireworks going off across the river to celebrate Christmas. I just hope Santa wasn't hit by any of the explosions....

Christmas Party

2006-12-23T19:03:00.000+09:00

On Friday, we had the Christmas party for the kids at my school. Santa made an appearance and all the kids got presents from him. Sarah got a paint set which she hated and started to cry because she did not like it. After lunch we played with the toys, made Christmas cards and then each class sang a Christmas song to the entire school. Bright Class rocked the "We Wish You a Merry Christmas and they did very well. As you can see from this picture of Laura and I it was tiring for the teachers and the students...

Everything else is going well and I am now officially on vacation which is sweet. Im off to Thailand tomorrow at 6am and I have to pick Christie up from the airport right now so I will leave you with the musical talents of Bright Class. Everyone have a great Christmas and I miss you all.....

Fan Death Cont....

2006-12-19T15:04:00.000+09:00

Incase anyone was concerned about fan deat there is an extensive article about it on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_death

Name Changey

2006-12-18T20:07:00.000+09:00

So today I walked into class and was told that Esther and Molly no longer liked their names and had both decided to change them. So from now on Esther will be known as Hannah and Molly will be known as Joycie (a girly version of Joyce I guess.)

In other news Sonny burned his hand on a hot glue gun today. I told all the kids not to come close to the gun because it is "very hot and dangerous" as Eric stated. Unfortunately, Sonny being the smooth criminal that he is decided that it wasn't really as hot as I said it was and put his hand on the tip. It was only a very small burn and I thought he would be good with a band-aid but the Korean teachers decided that he needed to go to the hospital. Sonny didn't even cry and his burn mark was smaller than a penny (maybe half the size) but they decided to take him. The hospital said that he was fine but they insisted on getting him a rap for it and I guess that he will be going back a few more times this week for updates.....basically erroring on the side of caution so his mom doesn't get mad I guess.

This weekend we had our Christmas party complete with Turkey, mash potatoes, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, ham and basically all the trimmigs you would have at a party at home. Ken and I provided a cake straight from Baskin & Robbins of which we were very proud of. This Christmas party went as most parties go with lots of eating and drinking. When we left the party to go to a bar it was snowing with some of the thickest flakes I have ever seen and perfect snowball weather. This led to a quite large snowball fight during most of the night.

Here is a pic of some of the people that were out after the party....

ENT Doctor

2006-12-11T21:36:00.000+09:00

Im not sure why it happened, probably due to the fact that I am sneezed on about twenty times a day but I woke up sick as a dog on Friday. Since I work with seven other people and an English speaking sub is difficult to come by, calling in sick was not an option. Basically, unless your dead you shouldn't call in sick because it just screws everyone else. A couple months ago walking into a classroom full of five year olds without 100% energy would have been terrifying but I not have a handle on the job and my class that the prospects were not to bad. I toughed it out until lunch and then decided to go to the Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor (his practice is called ENT Clinic) down the block. There was no wait at all and because Korean has a universal healthcare system they typed in some info from my Alien Registration Card and shuffled me right in. The doctor spoke broken English and gave me some medical jargon as he checked out my nose and throat. He keep shooting compressed air on my nose and tonsils which is about as pleasant as it sounds and then said I had like ten things wrong with me (Im not sure what he was saying but basically from my neck upwards was inflamed. He walked me over to a humidifier and told me to breath in while he wrote me a prescription. I thought he wanted me to put my mouth on what looked like a mouth piece but apparently not because he jumped up frantically when I did. I walked out of his office to pay at the front desk and was very pleasantly surprised to find it only cost me $3. I walked across the building to a pharmacy and picked up my prescription (which was five pills to be taken three times a day) and was even happier when this only set me back another $3.50. Gotta love that universal healthcare system.....Im not sure what I am taking but within an hour of my first doss I felt great.....

This weekend was really relaxed, we stayed in the Suji/Bundang area until Sunday when we went into the Electronics Market in Seoul. I bought the six highest grossing Korean movies of all time so Ill take a crack a Korean cinema. From what Ive seen so far it looks all good. Also, Ken has been talking to the office manager Alice and her husband eats dog on a farely normal basis so that may be on the menu in the next few weeks.....watch out Maggie....

E-Rock

2006-12-07T18:44:00.000+09:00

Today I got a new kid named Eric. He was bumped up from Laura's Smile class. He was super excited to come to Bright Class because it has the type of street cred that scares people. Also, Smile Class has a Michael Jackson type thing going on with Laura Teacher making them all wear masks. This picture may look like it was taken on Halloween but in reality in was last Tuesday... Eric fell right into Bright Class and I think he and Amy have a thing for each other because every five minutes one was poking the other or chasing the other around. Since everyone in Bright Class has a nickname, we decided that Eric needed one as well to really be a full fledged part of the class. There were some names tossed out, most notably Ear Rick (which got a few laughs) but we settled on E-Rock.

Most of the day was spent learning plurals, the kids didnt seem to understand the Y plurality.
This being vowels require only an s and consenants require you to drop the y and add ies

play = plays berry = berries

At the end of the day we looked across the hall and noticed that Smart Class had made a wreath. Naturally, we decided to create a wreath that was twice the size of the one hanging on the door of Smart Class. Unfortunately, we did not take into account that our wreath was then twice as wide as our door....so now its hanging on the window for all of Suji to see rather than on a door for only a few other classes.....

Late Thanksgiving. Early Christmas

2006-12-04T20:56:00.000+09:00

There hasn't been to much new stuff this week. We went out in Suji on Friday night and met Kwon, the drunkest Korean guy I have ever seen in my life. He proceeded to tell me that he was the inventor of Konglish and that although he was getting wasted by himself in some dive bar in Suji, he also happened to be the president and CEO of his company. Kwon got real weird and kept asking Tyler and I if we would come to dinner at his fathers home the next day. I told him sure whatever to get him to leave me alone but I think he really took it seriously. Who knows or cares....

Saturday we attempted to go to the movies and after getting some chicken galbi, we grabbed a cab to Orri, the next town over that has a farely large movie thearter. In the past there have always been very good selections of English movies, although Korea is one of only three countries in the world that watches more domestic than foreign films. Unfortunately, the foreign films were limited to Pans Labyrinth (a dark looking childrens film), Step Up (Some chick flick about ballet) and Saw 3. We decided on the kids movie and went to get coffee as we waited for it to start. When the movie started, we instantly realized why none of us had ever heard of Pan's Labyrinth, the movie was a spanish film and since we were in Korea, the subtitles were in Korean, leaving us pretty much screwed. We walked out of the movie and told the usher that we couldn't understand Spanish. She responded with an emphatic "Hola". We went up to the desk and were able to change our tickets to the only other English movie available, Step Up. Since we then had another hour to kill, we decided to go check out the book store downstairs from the threater. The English section was small but workable.

With about ten minutes to go before the movie started Tyler, Ken and I talked it over and decided that we would rather go home. Much to the dismay of Tara & Joanna (Im sure they were devistated) we decided to leave but as we were walking out we discovered the punching machine outside the malls arcade. I'm farely certain that these machines are meant for young kids but much to the delight of the two Korean woman sitting down behind up we decided to go at it. The machine measured the strength of a punch but there was a feature that brought the absorber down for an upper cut. No realizing thats what it was for I decided to give the machine a drop kick on the first go. Fifteen minutes later and fresh out of change we got a cab back to Suji.

Sunday was a bit of a lazy day, I basically laid around the apartment until about 5pm, angry at the pathetic showing by Marquette vs. North Dakota State Indian & Buffalo University. Seriously, how does the #8 team in the country get upset like that... Anyway, David a British/Mauritian friend of ours was given a turkey by a Korean woman he tutors(a fabulous person to anyone that knows where Mauritius is...and its not where Freddie Mercury is from as some drunk remarked on friday night). He was kind enough to bring a large amount of turkey down to Suji so that we could have a proper, although a bit belated Thanksgiving. It was amazing and I dont think I've ever been so happy to have turkey.

Monday was just a normal day until my E1's started. Samuel, the biggest little piece of crap in the entire school was once again absent. The kid has never missed a day of school since I have been in Korea and he was also gone on Friday. I asked the other kids in my class what happened to him and they said that he had gone to a bigger school. That was like music to my ears, I can count the number of people in this world that I hate on one had and Sameul is definitely a part of that hand. This kid made my life a living hell for the past four months and seemed to take pride in pissing me off. He went 3 1/2 weeks in a row and did not miss a day of being kicked out of my class. Everyday I tried to have patience with this kid but in the end I guess he was just a bad kid. Everyone take note because this guy reminds me of someone.....

Thankgiving, Noray Bong & Jeff's Housewarming..

2006-11-28T21:46:00.000+09:00

Thanksgiving was the first time since I have been here that I have felt homesick. Probably because it is such a long month and and without any sort of break (i.e. Thanksgiving) it seems to go on forever........

Although Korean Thanksgiving was back in October when I went to China there was still a party at our school, although there was no turkey. My kids all think it is gross that we eat turkey because it is a bird. When I reminded them that they eat chicken, duck & quail they just laughed and said that those don't count because those birds don't really fly. I countered with, well turkeys don't really fly either. The returned with, well a turkey is an ugly bird and I shouldn't want to eat it because of that.....outwitted by five year olds.

The party was basically a food festival with each class bringing in food from a different country. Italy was naturally Domino's Pizza, although I did see some spagetti. The other countries were China, Korea, Japan, and for some reason Mexico. The Korean teachers found this especially funny because, and I quote, "a mom here trying to make Mexican food is more difficult than a mom in America trying to make Korean food, they are clueless..." Most of the Mexican food did look like it was purchased at Cost Co but there were homemade tacos, nachos and burritos which were not to bad. (Score one for the Korean moms).

The kids seemed to go with the stereotype of most Koreans I have seen and heard about (not all :) and stayed with the Kimbop and Kimchi but I did get a few of my kids to adventure into the nachos and Sonny even tried a taco which he seemed to enjoy. The English teachers were in charge of serving lunch in order to push the kids into trying new food and so we decided to make fake mustaches so as to appear more like a real chef. Here is Shawna and I......

Thanksgiving night was not to exciting and to be glib, we went to the weirdest restaurant in the world, down the block in Suji, they had good foreign food but think Denny's, Martha Stewart and Acid, I don't think there is any other way to describe it. Friday night was filled with Noray Bong with most of the teachers, Sank Gyu, his wife Mrs. Woo, Alice the office manager and her eight year old Ian (Korean little kids go everywhere with there mothers). Needless to say some drinks were drank and any crazy ideas that Mrs. Woo had about me being a good singer flew right out the door. She told me I am a very fun singer though. I always have the fact that Tyler is 10x's worse than myself...haha

Saturday I went into Seoul with Ken. We met up with David, Kens British friend and took the subway over to there friend Jeff's apartment. Jeff was a teacher here and now work as an expat for a Canadian company. He has one of the nicest apartments I have seen in Seoul and a killer view. We didn't get over there until 9pm and by that time most of the Koreans in the house were trashed while the 5or6 foreigners in the place were all farely sober.

Everyone at the party was really cool, although I was probably the youngest person there by about five years. While Ken, David & I were reasonably sober for most of the night. There were a few Korean guys and girls that were so smashed they had to be carried onto the couch chair....it made for some pretty funny stuff. Afterwards we rolled in Hongdae for a bit and then after some Japanese food we crashed at David's place. The next day we did a bit of touring around Seoul and then it was back to the grind.

I got a new kid (Lucas) on Monday in my kindergarden. He seemed to be a bit of a character when he got up in his first class, stood on his chair and showed me the Mapagi, slapping yourself in the face, it funny here. He was not back today because his parents are deciding if he is a right fit for the school. Laura has his twin brother Oscar and said he was a real jackass so hopefully they won't join our school.

Ill leave you with Kenny and the drunkest, weirdest Korean guy I have ever seen in my life....

Seoul Bus Tour

2006-11-21T18:59:00.000+09:00

This weekend we went into Seoul on Saturday to do the Seoul city bus tour with some people from Yongin, a town near Suji. Unfortunately, we were all really lazy so we did not get in Gwangamon where the tour started until about 3.00pm. From the start of the tower we rode to the Seoul Tower. We got off the bus, the only time on the tour and went up to take a few pictures. Unfortunately, the weather was not so great so visability was not that great and the pictures weren't all they could've been.

From Seoul & HongDae

After the tour was finished, we took the subway over to the Hongik University stop where we, after a bit of an ordeal, found the restaurant Carne Station. Basically, a restaurant that would never survive in the states thanks to 22.000 won all you can eat and drink. The food was a lot better than we had expected which was a nice surprise. After dinner there was the usual night out in Hongdae, the Korean University area. Basically, the usual 5.30am return to Suji, baby punching good times, (please note that I did not punch any babies) and then I was up at 8.30am Sunday for a brisk early morning jog.....hah

From Seoul & HongDae

Pussy Cat Dolls in Korea

2006-11-17T22:48:00.000+09:00

A group of 5 year olds take on "Dont Cha" by the Pussy Cat Dolls.....

3 Months (of Gimchi)

2006-11-14T19:51:00.000+09:00

You know you're in Korea if this looks appatizing...
It hard to believe that we have been in Korea for three months. While it no longer feels like I have just gotten off the plane it is also hard to believe that I am 1/4 done with my work in Korea. It is actually starting to get chilling which I guess is to be expected by mid November.

Overall, the time here has been great, the other teachers we work with are great and the only one that was a bit weird was replaced within the first month with a really cool guy. Even though I am only working about 30hrs a week. There always seems to be something to do in this country and its all brand new to me which is great. There are things I love and dislike about this country (I wouldn't say I hate anything save the drunken GI's in Itaewon). The food is great and although I think Ive eaten enough sticky rice and gimchi for a lifetime I feel like my meal is incomplete if I haven't had atleast a bit.

Its also great that this is not Europe and basically no one speaks English. This presents both a problem, which forces foreigners to learn a bit of Korean and if they're smart, how to read it. At the same time it keeps me employed and some entertainment when riding the bus home with Barb, who as we all do from time to time, critics the Koreans as we are standing next to them.

The country as a whole is really changing with a huge mixture of the old and the new. You will see a poster for Super Junior (the 14 member boy band, all sporting the fashion mullet) next to a centuries old shrine. The little 24hr Mandu (dumpling stand) with more people in it than the 24hr McDonalds down the block. It is the little things like this, along with laughing at every teenage Korean male with their fashion mullet, that makes me love this country and will hopefully make my next 9months just as good.

Chicken Soup for the Teachers

2006-11-12T19:16:00.000+09:00

This week most of the teachers including myself were getting the flu because, well I guess thats what happens when you spend 8hours a day with 3-5 year olds. Since our boss did not want us all calling in sick he invited us all over to his apartment for chicken soup, he said it is used to cure ailments in Korea, the same way it is in the United States. When we got over there he said that he had prepared us several dishes along with our soup which actually ment his wife Mrs. Woo had prepared them because he way sitting on the couch and all the women were in the kitchen making dinner.

First they brought out some Mandu (Pork Dumplings) and they were a very big hit. There were several other side dishes including the usual (rice, gimchi) and some sweet and sour pork. After all the sides were out the brought out the soup which was basically your own chicken in broth. It was extremely good and I think it was intended to make you warm inside as well as make you sweat a bit because the stuff was so piping hot. After dinner we were entertained by Saeng Yu and Mrs. Woo's daughters (Stephanie and So Yong). Saeng Yu also put on the music channel to educate us a bit about Korean Pop culture.

The next day, friday I came to find out was Pepero day. Peperos are basically cookie sticks covered with choclate on one end and in a similar way that Hallmark created Sweetest Day in the US, the Perpero company created Perpero Day to sell more Perperos (the day falls on 11/11 because the ones look like Peperos). Coincidently, 11/11 is also Black/White Day in Korea which as far as I can understand it is another Valentines type day where you buy your significant other something Black & White (they had stands all over with jewelry etc..).
My kids each brought in Peperos for every kid in the class and myself which led to pretty much everyone having 7 Peperos, I got a Pepero with a choclate from Abby which was pretty sweet...

Friday was a rough day because I was beginning to get sick and just plain tired. The kindergarden flew by but when it came to the E1 & E2 classes I was just not feeling it. To make matters worse Samuel once again started acting like a jackass the second I walked into the room, since I was so tired and in a bad mood I basically headed him of at the pass and the first time he got out of his seat I screamed at him so much that he cried. I felt bad at first but now that I think about it, he was the best behaved he had ever been for me and making this kid respect me even a little bit was a long time coming. The E2 was also bad because we were already ahead of where we need to be before the next test which ment we needed to slow down a bit so the kids were not overloaded when they were tested. I usually love teaching this class but my favorite kid I teach Woojin was absent, at the same time I think Esther & Molly were out of it as well and not there normal talkative selves.

After school, I was dead and was originally going to go home and sleep but after sitting at home for a few hours I decided to rally and go into Seoul. We went to Gangnam and had dinner at a Turkish restaurant with Tara, Laura, Ken, Clark, one of Taras friends and David a Brit friends with Ken. After dinner we went and had a drink at a German Beer Hall and then ran out of there quick to catch the last bus back to Suji. After grabbing a picture on the stuffed Giraffe they had in there understandibly....

Saturday & Sunday were also farely lame since nobody really had any energy to do anything. We did manage to go into Seoul and have brunch on Sunday and then walked around Itaewon looking at the markets a bit but that was about it.

As for me I am planning on going to be very early tonight as I am still feeling sick but hopefully it should clear up soon....

A Regular Week in Suji

2006-11-05T20:39:00.000+09:00

This week can be classified as just a normal week in Suji. We got paid as usual on the first of the month and also as usual I had spent almost half of my pay on traveling. This paycheck went to the flights to Thailand for Christie & I over Christmas break. Tuesday was also Charles' - best known as the red power ranger for Halloween - last day. His mother decided to take him out of school until after Christmas because he will be going to Korean school starting in March and she wants to spend her last few months with him because school will basically be his life for the next 12 years. 9.30am-10pm Monday through Friday with half day Saturday's. Charles leaving is referred to as stress leave by the Koreans because, and its quite sad, the little 3-4 year olds have schedules that are comparable to full time jobs in the states. My youngest kids who are 4-5 go to English school from 9.50-2.30 where they are expected to do Math and Phonics everyday. After school they go to usually go to two other types of school one a sort of fun school such as (Tae Kwon Do, Gumdo - Swords, Swimming, Piano, Singing, Art, Soccer etc...) and one Academic (Math or Science). This usually put these 4-5year olds home at 6.30-7.00 at night. A pretty long day for a 4 year old I think. Whenever I get frustrated with my kids and want to yell at them to be quiet I just think that I was probably playing with mud or eating bugs at their age and definitely wasn't doing multiplication, division, phonics in a second language or pulling 8 hour days....

The day after Charles left my class was sad and they all said they missed him. Thankfully we had a field trip which turned out to just be a trip to a park where the kids could basically run around and go nuts. A nice escape from their normal routine of scheduled classes to the minute I think.

This weekend we went to a foreigner bar in Bundang, an area near Suji on Friday night and although it was empty it was still a good time. As we left the bar, Tyler and I grabbed what appeared to be a fried chicken wing from one of the street vendors. There are some weird foods in Korea but for the most part I can tell what I am getting from the signs etc. I took a bite and underneath the fried part I began chewing was appeared to be an Octopus tentacle. I threw me for a loop at first but it tasted fine so I ate the rest...

On Sunday, we took the bus into Seoul and grabbed western brunch at the Canadian bar, Rocky Mountain Tavern. While waiting for the bus in Suji a western guy named Aaron came up and introduced himself. He invited himself to brunch which isnt an odd thing to do in Korea since nobody really knows a lot of people. What was weird was that it was 11.30 on Sunday, he stunk of cheap booze and was drinking a beer. At brunch he put down probably 6 more drinks and then insisted on getting our phone numbers. He had to get his cell phone fixed so he said he would call later, much to my dismay. We got out of Itaewon quickly so as to avoid him but he called my phone numerous times over the day so it appears I may have a crazy stalker in Suji.

We took the subway to Insadong, to escape crazy Aaron, and walked around the markets, where I kicked out my Christmas shopping in just under an hour and go a picture with Ancient Korean reenactors and a guy with a sign giving free hugs and then we took a cab over to Yongsan to buy DVDs at the electronics market. Afterwards it was back to Suji to rest up for the next week of classes.....

The DMZ & Adjushe (Oldman)

2006-10-31T19:03:00.000+09:00

Friday night after work we went back to the apartment and packed some stuff and then met our boss Saenk Gyu downstairs from our apartment for a ride into Seoul since he was heading there for a business meeting and his wife, Mrs. Woo was visiting a friend in the hospital. Since my dads flight did not get in until 8.10 we figured that he would not get into central Seoul, where he was headed until about 10.30-11pm since he had to go through the traffic of Icheon (the island 40miles west of Seoul where the airport is located that has a population of 7million). After getting through that monster he still had to deal with the big dog Seoul which has a population of 14million with an extra 6-8million emptying out into the burbs every night. If your saying to yourself, "wait a minute if his flight lands after 8pm shouldn't he miss most of the rush hour" then just be glad you are not Korean because they have diverted a bit from the 9-5 routine and work Monday through Friday and sometimes Saturdays from 8am to 8 or 9pm and that's not even as bad as the high school kids have it.

We had our boss drop us at the COEX mall, a few subway stop from Gangnam and the Renaissance Hotel since we arrived into Seoul around 8.30. This mall is the largest in Asia and since it is almost entirely underground and enormous it almost does not even feel like a mall. We killed two hour by walking one of the underground levels(there are three), browsing through an English book store and going into a music store and laughing at the phonetic translations of English CD's & DVD's into Korean. After our time at COEX we hoped on the subway and went down two stops to the Yongsam Subway stop which was only a short walk to the Renaissance Hotel. We walked into the hotel and asked the concierge if my dad had checked in yet. They said he had not so we walked across the street, grabbed a beer at 7/11 (there are no open container laws in Korea) and explored the neighborhood. All I can say is that the Renaissance Hotel must be a big stop with the Japanese businessmen because along with the line of Japanese restaurants (basically everything Japanese is not very popular in Korea) there was an assortment of romantic hotels and romantic massage parlors, both staples of the Japanese. We finished our beer and walked back to the hotel to find that my dad had just checked in.

He said he had experienced the Korean bus drivers first hand and almost witnessed the death of two people, basically a normal trip on any Korean bus. He was also dismayed to learn that Korea had the same cell phone technology as Japan and unfortunately was one of the two countries in the world where his cell phone would not work. We walked downstairs and talked to the concierge who recommended a good Galbi, Korean BBQ restaurant nearby. The galbi was some of the best and also some of the most expensive I have had while in Korea after dinner we walked back to the hotel and went right to be since it was 1am and we had to be up at 5.45am to go to the DMZ.

The next day we got up at 5.45 with less that 5hours of sleep. We grabbed a cab over to the Yongsan (US Army base in Seoul) subway stop and then walked about 10minutes over to the USO Office. We were a bit late and the bus was already boarding when we arrived. Since we were late we were forced to sit at the back of the bus next to an Belgian and an Indian guy, needless to say they were about the two smelliest people I have ever come in contact with and I feel it was safe to say that neither had showered in about a week, this made it a pretty rough ride up and back from the DMZ.

We had a passport checked twice and went through some very fortified areas and finally arrived at Panmunjeom (판문점), the village in the center of the Demilitarized Zone set up with the cease fire between the North & the South during the Korean war. The two countries are technically still at war as no peace treaty has ever been signed. The village is controlled by the UN forces (South Korean & American Armies) and the North Korean Army, there was previously Chinese Army stationed at Panmunjeom but that ended a few decades ago.

When we first arrived we were given a short PowerPoint presentation by a US Army SGT, basically giving a short history of the Korean war, making some jokes that the DPRK was the butt of (they are constantly making building just a little taller, bigger than the South Koreans.) The also covered the issue of the North Koreans flag flying at propaganda village (so named because propaganda use to be shouted through microphones towards the south and the north does not allow anyone to live there for fear they would defect.) The issue with the flag in propaganda village is that it is bigger than most buildings in the DMZ and weighs over 600lbs, therefore it takes basically a gail force wind for it to flap and if there is no wind it must be taken down or it will break under its own weight. I think the north would respond to these accusations by stating no good flag of the DPRK would ever break without the expressed permission of the dear leader Kim Jong-Il. The final part of the presentation stated that when we went to the border we were under no circumstances to look at, point to, wave at, attempt to make contact with, punch, kick, pull the gun, grenade, rocket launcher, tank keys, nucleur weapons program documents........you get the point...from any North Korean Soldier.

After the presentation we walked about 100yds and saw this building..

The midpoint between these two blue buildings on the right and left represent the border between north and south korea. You can see on the balcony a north korean standing at attention. We walked into the building on the left and got a short presentation from one of the South Korean soldiers giving us the tour and then walked across the building into north korea. As the soldier was talking I looked out the window over my shoulder and saw three North Koreans coming up to the border to takes there pictures. Since we werent supposed to take there pictures I snagged a quick picture without anyone seeing.

Afterwards we were shuffled out very quickly and then got back on the bus and drove to the first viewing area in the DMZ where we were surrounded by North Korean Guard towers on three sides. We saw the location of the axe murder incident where an American soldier was axed to death by north koreans in the 197os and over to the bridge of no return where POWs returned home to there respective countries after the Korean War.

On the left is the Propaganda Village and the 600lb flag
On the right is one of the many North Korean giard Towers in the DMZ

At the first viewing pint I also grabbed a picture with these to bad ass looking South Korean soldiers. After the viewing point we got back on the bus and drove through the South Korean DMZ village known as Peace Village that actually has about 200 residents whom are exempt from both taxes and military service. We stopped for lunch and had Bulgogi (Shredded Pork) and yep...you guessed it gimchi and rice. We had about an hour for lunch and then it was off to yet another site in the DMZ. We drove through the Peace Village and got a look at the farms surrounded by mine fields on three sides and the pretty intense security, but I guess if your only a few hundred yards from the craziest country in the world that has ambition you would want that type of security. We next stopped at the second viewing site which was pretty bad because the wind started coming in from the north which meant north Korean pollution made visibility nearly impossible. Also, the South Koreans would only allow pictures from 15ft behind the wall which made it impossible to get a picture of the landscape. This was the best shot I could get and you can basically see the outline of what seems to be a mountain range. Quick as we got there we were back on the bus and over to the third tunnel that the North Koreans built in an attempt to go under the 1million land mines in the DMZ and invade the south. We walked downward at a very steep angle for a quarter mile and then put our construction helmets on to walk another 1/4 mile through the tunnel that was maybe 51/2ft tall. Luckily we had the helmet because I bumped my head on the ceiling probably 20 times and walking with your head at a tilt was not very fun for that length of time. There were no pictures allowed in the tunnel but the old man went against, United Nations, US Army and South Korean Army regulations and snapped a few. Hes lucky there was not an international incident, even though there wasnt so much as a guard down in the tunnel blocking us from going through the door into the north.

After the tunnel it was up into the DMZ history museum which was basically a counter point to every bit of propaganda that has come out of the DPRK over the past 30 years regarding the DMZ. My favorite was the claim made by the north koreans that the South had actually built the invasion tunnels even though the blasts come from the north, also there is no explanation as to why the south koreans would divulge this information if they were the ones building the secret tunnels. We got back on the bus and managed to see the "beautiful" northwestern coast of South Korea, litered with barbed wire and guard tower before we all fell asleep.

When we made it back to Seoul we were dropped off at Yongsan Army Base and then walked over to the Korean War Memorial where we grabbed a cab back to the hotel and took a quick nap. After the nap we went out to dinner at Sortinos an Italian restaurant, in Itaewon (the area that caters to foreigners and soldiers). At dinner, my dad and I were pretty conservative with our selection and just got normal types of pasta. Tyler had his eye set on a pasta that came with Squid Ink in the sause. He tried to ask the waiter about it but he did not understand so he just decided to risk it and go with it. We Tyler's food arrived you could tell it was not what he had expected. In his defense I told him that he "probably would not even see or taste the squid ink". Instead his pasta was black and the sause was entirely squid ink. The stuff made his entire mouth black, literally looking like he was chewing on a pen that exploded.

After two good dinners we took a short cab to Hanam dong where we grabbed the bus back to Suji to show the old man around a bit. He said Suji reminded him of Suzhou in China, and said that our apartment was nice and economical. After a quick tour I took him back to the bus stop since he had an early flight out of Seoul and said goodbye. Hopefully he made it back to his hotel and is not still wandering the streets looking for an English speaker.

Overall it was a great visit and hopefully more will follow my dads lead....

The Halloween is Here Song

2006-10-29T23:16:00.000+09:00

This is the practice song.... They arent doing the dancing but its pretty good

More Halloween Pics

2006-10-29T21:12:00.000+09:00

Abby as a Pumpkin

Philip as a "Male Witch"

Charles as a Power Ranger

Sonny as an Axe Murderer

Halloween

2006-10-29T20:55:00.000+09:00

Friday was Halloween at school so we all had to dress up. I was a baseball player & Tyler was a Badmitton player, Yeah real original I know... All of the kids came dressed us, I was expecting 5 princesses and 3 power rangers but my kids surprised me and we had some witches and pumpkins to go along with the power ranger and princesses. We started out the day by practicing our Halloween song that we had to sing infront of the whole school. My kids were wired so I didnt really teach them any phonics at all. Instead we carved a pumpkin in the morning and then I had them name off different types of monsters for candy. Basically pumping them full of sugar. After lunch if was time for trick or treating and the kids walked through the school to the different classrooms. I taught my kids the rhyme:
"trick or treat, trick or treat
smell my feet
if you dont, I dont care
Ill put gum, In your hair"

it was way better than the version the canadian teachers use and taught there kids
"trick or treat, trick or treat
give me something good to eat
not to big, not to small
just the size of montreal"
All I have to say is wow...

I put on a scream mask when the kids came around to my classroom and jumped out at them when they knocked on my door. They were scared but none of them cried which is better than American 3,4 & 5 year olds who probably would have balled there eyes out. After trick or treating we went to the gym, lit the jack o'lanterns and all the classes sang their songs. These songs ranged from the youngest kids who sang 5 little pumpkins sitting on the hedge to the highest class that sang "we all need somebody to lean on". My class got a little stage fright but did very well considering we sang 5 verses and they were probally ODing on sugar.

After singing it was time for the kids to go home and get the monthly tests ready for the E1 and E2's. The older kids all did very well on their tests and then we carved pumpkins and played monopoly after they had finished.

After work, I was talking to my boss, told him I was meeting my dad in Gangnam and he offered to give us a riding since he had a business dinner fairly close to there. He picked us up about an hour after work and we drove to Seoul....

Ill fill you in on the weekend with Oldman tomorrow but for now here are the Halloween pics of my kids....

Amy as a Vampire

Lucy as a Vampire

Selyn as Cinderella

Sarah as an Angel

Hongdae and Picture Dae

2006-10-24T20:55:00.000+09:00

Sorry its been so long since my last post but Ive pretty much gotten into the routine and there hasnt been too much new stuff happening. Last week class went very well and I didn't even have to kick out Samuel or Matthew from my E1. Last weekend we stayed in Suji on friday night and then took the bus into Hongdae, the Korean University area of Seoul. There aren't to many foreigners in this area but there are a lot of restaurants and bars etc. We got some dinner at Jackie Chan's Restaurant and then bar hopped until late.

This week has also gone very well and we had picture day today, they kids were very dressed up and Sonny even wore a three piece suit. I dont have the pictures yet but I will put them up within the next few days.

I know that I havent't had much to say but to fill you in on some of the small parts of life in Korea...the weather has started to get cooler for the past couple days. From what Ive heard the climate is a lot like St. Louis. Other than that I booked the trip for Thailand over the Christmas break so I will be there for a week and then in Japan for 4-5days in February to visit my buddy Ryan from Marquette who is doing the same thing is Oita, Japan. Old man gets here on Friday night so I will give him the grand tour and we are going to the DMZ so we will be in North Korea for a bit on Saturday. I hope Kim Jong-il doesn't get trigger happy while Im there....

Suwon Blue Wings

2006-10-15T23:58:00.000+09:00

This weekend we said goodbye to Kevin and Jennifer and hello to the new teachers. We have Shawna and Ken both from Canada. Ken seems like a cool guy and we did a lot of chilling with him both saturday night and sunday during the day. Shawna on the other hand lives downstairs with her partner Saydee and we have barely seen either of them. Friday night was very relaxed and we had a few beers with Kevin and then raided his belongings that were not going back to Canada with him. The night got a bit interesting when Kevins Korean girlfriend showed up trashed and they talked back and forth in Konglish.

Saturday we chilled at the apartment until about 4pm when we met up with Tara, Ken Laura and Laura's three friend from the states (Katie, Allison & Todd). We grabbed a taxi to the Suwon Olympic Stadium for about 8,000won and bought tickets for the Suwon Samsung Blue Wings. The best and most well known soccer team in South Korea. At the game we met up with Hayley, Sarah & Bree, some British girls I met.

The game was awesome and Suwon won 3-0. The Koreans there we going nuts and gave us a bunch of food and told us to come back for the next game. Here is the crowd after the game...

Here is the crowd at the end of the Suwon Game

After the game we went to get Gogi Galbi and then over to a microbrewery called Tn. After a few hours at Tn we went across the street to Batman bar, (a bar with no name just the Batman symbol on the front). The owner/bartender also claims his English name is Batman. After Batman bar we went to 7/11 to garb some makeju's and headed to the Noray Bong. Unfortunately, we did not hide our beer and the guy kicked us out. We left that Noray Bong and walked across the street to another Noray Bong (they are every block in this country). After 2-3hrs in the singing room we all headed out, said goodnight, grabbed some Mandu (Korean dumplings) and went to bed.

Sunday we basically just hung around the apartment and watched episodes of Lost (one of the DVD sets we got in China. Ken and Tara came over as well, when Ken came by he told us that there was a sofa in the trash near our apartment so we walked downstairs and checked it out. We brought it upstairs and even though it is a nasty red color it is comfortable so our apartment is begiing to come together nicely.

I know I am going overboard with the videos but here is the grand tour....

The Great Wall

2006-10-12T17:54:00.000+09:00

Im not sure if this video will work but here it goes

Fan Death

2006-10-10T17:51:00.000+09:00

Today we were talking about all the weird things that Koreans do and the subject of fan death came up. Fan Death is the belief that if someone is sleeping in a sealed room (windows and doors are closed) with an electric fan on, they could die. There is only one country in the world where fan death is stated as fact, South Korea. They believe that the fans will get you by suffocation, apparently, the blowing fan somehow creates a vacuum around your face area, which prevents you from breathing correctly. The result is death. When I first heard about it when I arrived I thought it was a joke but pretty much every Korean I have talked to has said that it could really happen, they warn against sleeping in a sealed room with your fan on and every fan sold in South Korea has a timer on it just in case you fall asleep while your fan is on. Fan death is a documented cause of death in Korea, I wonder what these people are really dying of, maybe being put under a pillow by there husband/wife. I just don't get how they could by something like this with the quality of the education system in this country...then again 50% of Americans believe creationism to be complete fact and through evolution out the door entirely - question answered.

As for life on the Korean Pennisula, I guess North Korea really did test a nuclear bomb, there was speculation in Seoul that they were bluffing but there was seismic activity at the time the bomb was tested so I guess Im living about 6o miles from the craziest nuclear power in the world. The South Koreans tell me that there is not to much to worry about though and from what is in the news China is going to keep the north under their thumb, not wanting nuclear war so close to home. South Koreans analysts also stated in the paper today that the north would most likely target Japan or Hawaii if they were to launch a nuke because a nuke in South Korea would create fallout in there own country, at the same time their goal is to conquer the south not destroy it.

My mom told me that there are a lot of people reading my blog so if anyone has any questions or comments feel free to leave them in the comments area below each post...

Anyong Hicassayo

Beijing Part II

2006-10-09T19:34:00.000+09:00

On Friday we woke up a bit later and skipped breakfast at the restaurant in favor of some muffins at a grocery store near by. The Great Wall tour was not solo as the city tour was and along with the four of us there was a Spanish guy (would said he had been travelling the word for the past two years) a French Guy and a Russian girl (both of whom were teaching English in China even though it was not there first language. First we drove to a few tombs of the Ming Dynasty which was nice to see and was empty which was a stark change from the day earlier. On the way to the wall we stopped at a Jade factory, which was really boring and looked like a sweat shop. We also had lunch at the Jade factory which was Chinese and actually very good, another change from the day before. We left the Jade factory and drove to the wall. Since we had paid to go to the Ming Tombs we were not at the same area of the wall that the majority of tourists go. Instead we were at a place farther out which meant that the wall had not been restored as the main tourist is. It also meant that we basically had the place to ourselves save the occasional Chinese tourist that asked for a picture. The wall was much steeper than I had expected and is basically a broken up damaged path that just goes over the mountains. We had 2 hours at the wall and basically hiked up a mountain and then back down in that time with a bunch of stops to climb up a ruined tower or take a few pictures. All in all it is probably one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life and I dont now if anything can compare to it.

Here is a few pictures from the wall...I had to throw in a Korean gimchi atleast once...

We hiked up over that mountain in the distance...there is Tara way in the background

After the wall we drove back and unfortunately stopped at yet another tea house on the way back. This tea house was catered more to tourists rather than both tourists and locals as was the previous day. The English at our presentation was horrible and the Chinese lady did not know nearly as much as we did. After the presentation we were asked if we wanted to purchase anything at crazy prices. Since the four of us had already bought tea, the Spanish guy said he didn't like tea and the French & Russian teachers live in China and therefore had no need to pay so much for it, nobody moved or said anything. The Chinese girl went crazy and said that either the price was to high or we didnt like it. There was a tense couple of minutes of her pressuring us like crazy until the French guy agree to by one box for $5. She went to get it for him and we scrambled out of there. Afterwards we were finally dropped off at our hotel and went to grab dinner at the hot pot of Xiabu Xiabu as they call it in Korea. We got a lot of food but our sauces tasted a bit odd. We were all so tired after the past two days that we hit up the hotel bar and then crashed and slept in a bit for the first time in our vacation.

The rest of the trip is not to exciting, we basicallly walked around Beijing and did a bit more shopping, we planned on going to the zoo but I went on some travel sites and the consesious was that the Beijing zoo is one of the worst major zoos in the world. Here is a picture at the top of the Ancient Beijing Observatory.

Since it was a 5 day holiday in Korea our flight back was delayed. The last bus to Suji from the airport was at 11pm so when we got off at 10.40 we booked past the crowds and were the first people to go through customs. Unfortunately we then waited 45minutes for our bags because the airport had a skeleton crew and there was only one person unloading the bags onto the ramp. We ended up having to take a bus into Seoul and then a cab back to Suji which landed us back around 1am. China was good but it was weird to be longing to get back to Korea and craving the Korean food. I also felt stupid that I didnt understand any of the Chinese writing and once again needed hands signals to even order food or a drink. Overall a good trip but its nice to be back in Korea.....

Beijing Part I

2006-10-08T12:48:00.000+09:00

Tyler, Tara Barb & I arrived in Beijing, PRC at about 9pm Wednesday night and took a bus from the airport for 16¥, or about two dollars, to the Beijing Central Train station, which also happened to be across the street from the hostel we stayed at, called the Beijing City Center International Youth Hostel. Our rooms were very nice and there was two people to a room which had private bathrooms, TV, A/C; basically it was a hotel. We tossed our bags down and went to sign up for a Beijing city tour which included lunch, an English Guide and driver for about 200¥. Afterwards we walked out to explore Beijing and attempted to walk to Tiananmen Square which appeared to be about 2 1/2 blocks away. Unfortunately, as we later realized, in downtown Beijing each city block is the equivalent to about 5-6 city blocks in any other country in the world so we walked for about a half hour before we got to something that looked old, it ended up being the outer gates of the Forbidden City but since it was close to midnight it was closed. We took a cab back and learned the next day that we were only 100m away from the square. When we got back to the hotel we had a beer in the bar and then went to bed as we had to be up at 7.40 for the city tour.

The next day we woke up at like 6.40 and showered, then went down to a restaurant in the same building as our hotel to have breakfast. The had western style breakfast which consisted of Fried Egg, that had the familiar taste of Soy, probably from being cooked in the same tray, hash browns with about 5lbs of salt dumped on them (they literally burned your mouth when you ate them). There was cereal & OJ which made it alright.

After breakfast we met out tour guide Chris, we drove to the Temple of Heaven and saw a very impressive temple as well as some nice gardens. Since there were so many trees in this area it was like a breath of fresh air walking into the Temple area. Beijing is so polluted that visability is maybe half a mile and they sky is a constant grey haze. The sun is out and you can see it through the smog but the level of pollution is disgusting and definitely worse than Shanghai or anywhere else I have been.

Here I am in front of the Temple of Heaven...

After the Temple of Heaven our tour guide desided to take us to an "authentic" Pearl factory/area. I was insanely overpriced junk that catered soley to tourists and basically charged 20x's the price to stupid westerners that were either to naive or stupid to know what they were doing. Needless to say we sat there and looked miserable until it was time to go.

After the Pearl Factory we went to Tiananmen Square and our guide gave us 20minutes to walk around on our own and get a feel for the place. Since there were tens of thousands of people in this square - most of them Chinese of vacation since this time was a holiday period in China as well - this 2omin turned in picture time with the white people. We maybe got 200m into the square during the twenty minutes because tons of people would just come up and say "please take a picture with me/my son/my daughter/my family/my baby/my girlfriend etc... It was pretty cool and I took a picture with the first few people that asked me but after a while we had run out of time and hadn't really enjoyed walking around the square as I would have liked.

Above: Me taking a picture with this guys girlfriend
Below: Walking by Mao into the Forbidden City

After Tiananmen Square we walked across the street and into the Forbidden City. It seemed like every person in China was visiting the city at this point and there was no sense of personal space in the city at all. Our guide had to wait in line for twenty minutes for tickets so once again we did some photo opps.

The Forbidden City was a lot bigger than I thought it would be and it seemed like the Emporer had a different building for everything he did. We saw probably 50 buildings with different names like the Palace of Longevity etc... We spent a few hours learning all about the city and the different artifacts that were used by the emporers.

Here I am in front of the Palace in the Forbidden City...

After the forbidden city we were going to go to lunch followed by the summer palace. What we didn't know was that lunch was paid for by a Silk Museum/Store that gave us free lunch because we toured there store. The silk tour was alright and it was nice to see how it was made but the silk was once again 20x's the price it should be and we just felt pressured to purchase something, which none of us did. After the tour we had lunch with was probably one of the worst meals I have ever eaten. They attempted to make Western food, beef tendeloin, pasta etc.. but it was very poor quality food, it was cold and basically tasted like crap. We picked at the fruit and ate some potatoes, all the while growing angry at our guide.

After lunch we went to the Summer Palace which was across a lake, we took a short boatride to the area of the lake where the Palace was located. Unfortunately, the Palace was being repaired for the 2008 Olympics but the grounds were open so we walked around the grounds including the longest walkway in the world ;). Afterwards we were going back to our hotel when our guide asked us if we would like to go to a Chinese Tea House. He assured us that it was not another tourist scam and we agreed to go there. The tea house was very cool and we tried five different types of tea. Since there was no pressure and the prices were close to the level that Chinese people pay for it we bought a lot of tea much to the delight of our guide Chris who made some money off of us even if it was just a few Yuan.

On the was back to our hotel we had our guide drop us off at the Silk Street market, like the Shang Yang Market in Shanghai but inside. When we got out of the van someone instantly asked up if we wanted DVD's we followed the guy to his fathers restaurant and basically went through boxes of DVD's at a table while people were eating. They wanted 20¥ per DVD but I told him I lived in Shanghai so we got them for 7¥. After DVD's we went into the Market building and bought up the place......shirts, camera memory cards, shoes, sweaters, sweat shirts, scrolls, sun glasses, bags, PS2 games, I cant even remember all the stuff we bought but they had everything in this market from rollerblades to jewelry to golf clubs, all at 1/10th of the US price. We spent a few hours there and then went back to the hotel where we booked our tour of the great wall, grabbed some dinner at a small restaurant across the street and then went to bed because we had to be up at 7am to get out to the wall....

All of my pictures from my entire China trip are up if you go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/StephenWynn1

Chusok Week

2006-10-03T19:12:00.000+09:00

This weekend was pretty relaxed, we hung around Suji and sampled some of the food places on Friday night. We were just hanging out with two of our co workers and it all seemed pretty relaxed but when we got up to leave it was almost 2am and it didn't even seem as if it was midnight.

Saturday morning we got up pretty early, (I dont like this whole normal work schedule thing because it really cuts into my ability to sleep all day during the weekend.) We watched some movies, relaxed, walked around Suji a bit and basically geared up for the big party in Itaewon that night.

The party was for Janus, a friend of Barb's one of the other teachers at our school. She has been in Korea for four years and is going home next week. There were quite a bit of people at the party and probably one of the largest gatherings of foreigners outside of a bar that I have seen in Korean. They had popcorn chicken, vegetables, nachos and a whole bunch of other goodies that are difficult to have here. After the party which was planned to be from 8-10pm we went out to Itaewon, the foreigner area near Yongson military base and partied at numerous bars until early in the morning. I would like to provide more details but this is a family friendly blog.

This week has been very easy because it is Tuesday and we are done for the week thanks to Chu'sok (Korean Thanksgiving). Almost half of my class was out today and I didnt teach any English because it would have put the other half behind. Many of the kids that did show up brought me presents which was a really nice surprise. We did a lot of games and coloring which is always a breeze. In the afternoon today we gave our bosses and the Korean teachers a Chu'sok present, it was a gift certificate to Outback Steakhouse and a gift basket. Kierstie,one of the other teachers put it together, everybody put in $30 and I was more than happy to toss my money in as well seeing as I did not have to do any of the shopping. The older kids showed up in the same ratio as the younger kids so that was also filled with UNO and Scatagories games.

Tomorrow we are off to Beijing, China so there will be plenty more pictures for everyone to see

Photo Album

2006-09-29T21:47:00.000+09:00

By request I have established a photo album for my time in Korea, I will put it in the links on the side bar to the right but here is the link now.

http://picasaweb.google.com/StephenWynn1

I put Sarak Mountain up for now but there will be more to follow

Report Card Day

2006-09-28T00:10:00.000+09:00

Today was test day which meant that tonight is report card night. Tyler went into Seoul to take the GRE which ment that everbody else had to cover his classes. I is really a pain when someone isnt there because five other teachers have to switch off and cover the class while there old class has computers. Bright class had computers during fourth period which ment I had Happy class for Music and let me say that his class is full of punk. I had to send Joshua in the hallway for punching Carly, Tylers worst girl, I was actually glad he did it though because she wouldnt sit in her seat during musical chairs, so she had to leave to when she was hit.

My E1 kids were descent today and I only had to send Samuel out once, I dont remember what he did and I dont even care. The kid drives me nuts and I through him out of class now for things that would just have me yelling at the other kids. Otherwise things when well, my kids did good on there tests and I gave good report cards to pretty much everyone save the listening section of Samuel's.

Big party in Itaewon this weekend, some girl that we met once through another teacher is going home after four years so she rented out a bar there.

Ill leave you with some more pictures of Sarak...

Climbing the Summit

Some Addjama's that wanted a picture with to Megooks's
translation - two old ladys that wanted a pic with some Americans

Sarak Son

2006-09-25T22:45:00.000+09:00

Friday I got a new girl in my kindergarden named Sylen, she had been away in the US with her family for a couple months and had been in kindergarden there so she is ahead of most of the other kids with her English. She is also very quiet and sits quietly when done with her work so it was really nice. Later on Friday we played "Special" Musical Chairs with Happy (Tyler's) Class and Cherry (Tara's) class. There were like 25 kids in the class and Amy from my class emerged victorious much to the dismay of Happy class.

After work we got on the bus and mad the 5hr trip to Sorak Son (Mountain). When we got to the resort, which was huge we explored a bit and then went to bed. We woke up early the next morning and had some breakfast and then it was off to the mountain. Some people took a cab over to the mountain but we were able to get a ride from Sang Gyu. He dropped us off at the mountain and we explored a bit, saw a shrine and and a big buddha. The went hiked up to the top of the mountain which took quite a bit since Koreans are crazy about hiking and the mountain was packed. The mountain was covered with different small huts that had food and drinks and there was a look out tower close to the top where the gondola came close to the top. There were some steps but the path was mostly just beaten dirt. The top of the mountain got really steap and was really hard to get up all the way without slipping.

After going to the top we climbed down a bit and took the gondola down to the bottom where we had lunch. We had bebinbop which is rice, egg, vegetables and a bunch of other things coming from various plants. After lunch we hiked over to a waterfall which was about three miles away and took pictures there. We were quite a hit with the old Korean ladies most of which wanted to take there picture with Tyler. The water was extremely cold and our legs were going numb walking around in it. There was a huge sign that said no swimming and there were tons of Korean just hanging around not going in the water so I didn't go in but Ian, the little Korean boy who is the son of our office manager fell in and spent the next couple of hours miserably cold, although it was pretty funny.

After the waterfall we walked back to the entrance of the park and got a cab back to the resort. The resort had a water park area known as Aquazone so went went swimming in there are went through all of the different baths. It was funny because the required everyone in the water to wear swim caps so we had to rent one. They had a cider bath, wormwood bath, Jasmine Tea bath and a bunch of others. There was a really weird old man in the ceder bath and since 99% of adults in Korea don't understand English we can talk about them when they are standing right infront of us. It has taken a while to get used to but everyone here does it so we had quite a laugh talking about the old growning Korean man.

Afterwards we went up and changed and then went down to get dinner. We had Korean BBQ which is basically the same as American BBQ, they had potatoes, shrip, ribs etc... We did some Soju (Korean Rice Wine) shots with our boss and then I tried some Sushami (Korean Sushi) from Choi, Alice our offices managers husband. He had some sea urchine, which looked and tasted like boogers, Squid and three types of fish. Overall, I think it was pretty good. After dinner we went up to the room and had some drinks which playing cards and Scatagories. Most of our coworkers went to bed and Tara, Tyler and I went downstairs to sing Noray Bong.

The next morning we got up and cleaned up the room before we checked out and went to the beach. The Sea of Japan (or East Sea in Korea because they don't like Japan) was really warm and the beach was huge. We hung out on the beach for an hour and then mad the long treak through Seoul traffic back to Suji.

Today was a normal day and I only had to through Samuel out in the last five minutes of class. After work we went to a Duck restaurant and had 8 courses of Duck for only $7. This is definitely my new favorite restaurant is Korea... Here are some pics of the weekend.

View from the Hotel

People getting ready to hike From the left: (Laura, Tara, Barbara, Ian, Stephanie Saenk Gyu's Daughter, Keirstie and Me)

In Korea we say Kimchi instead of Cheese

Me and Tyler on top of the mountain

Picnic

2006-09-21T17:59:00.000+09:00

Today we had the picnic which meant we had to be at work a 1/2hr early because the park was an hour away from Suji on the east side of Seoul. The school buses that pick up the kids just picked them up and drove straight to the park so the teachers got to ride on there own bus which was nice. When we got there is was apparent that there were a bunch of other schools also having a picnic at this park. There were a few schools of kindergardeners like ours and then a massive school of middle schoolers. This meant that the normal routine of Korean middle school girls daring each other to come over and say hi to western guys continued everytime we walked somewhere. We walked around the park for a while and basicalled just let the kids run around and play. I made the mistake of picking up a few kids which led to me, Tyler and every other teacher becoming human jungle gyms. We took class pictures, which I will post when I get them and then had lunch which was Gimbop (Nuts, Ham, Vegetables and Rice rolled in kelp). Every kid had it and I had to try everyones. The kids were also very suprised by how good I was at chopsticks which was nice.

After lunch there were Relay Races and my team dominated on Smile class which led to the showdown against Happy Class (Tyler's Class). Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time and Happy Class barely escaped domination. We did a relay race of English teachers vs. Korean Teachers, the Korean teachers cheated and this is why they won. Afterwards, it was time to go home and an hour later my day way over because I don't have an E1 class on Thursday's while all the other teachers do.

We get to go to Sarak Mountain and the East Sea (Sea of Japan) so there are many pictures on the way...Here are a few from the picnic

Here is Bright Class

Lucy and her Clovers
My kids dont seem excited about taking anymore pictures....

Terry Fox Run

2006-09-18T20:51:00.000+09:00

This weekend was pretty relaxed. We went out on friday night and met up with a bunch of foreigners. We were basically by ourselves because none of our co-workers were up for going out but we met some people at a bar around the corner from our house called Beer Hunters. We talked with them for a bit and then went to Bundang, a town about 20minutes away to a bar called Monkey Beach, which is known for cheap drinks and lots of expats.

Saturday was a pretty day because we just waited around the apartment and caught up on sleep etc. because we had to get up at 5am to go to the Terry Fox Run in Seoul the next morning. Terry Fox was some Canadian that lost his leg to cancer in the 1980s and decided to walk across Canada to raise money for cancer. He ended up losing his battle with cancer and died halfway through is trip but now everywhere in Canada they have these fundraisers every year and because basically everyone teaching English in Korea is Canadian it is pretty big.

After the run we went to Itaewon and had some Italian and then it was back to Suji to sleep for the rest of the day. School today went smoothly and I finally developed my angry voice for my E1 class that doesn't listen so I think I scared the crap of them today and hopefully I wont have to put up with anymore bs from them. Sarak this weekend which is exciting also....

Some pictures of School

2006-09-15T20:52:00.000+09:00

I thought I would take a few kids of my kids working hard after we called to wish Momma Wynn a happy birthday. For some reason they kept saying thank you to her after they sang happy birthday...

Here is Sonny being the stud that he is and the rest of the kids working on Phonics or as they say....AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhh Me no like you phonics...

And now some pics of my wonderful amazing, hardworking, fun, smart, cool, fun, cool etc etc E2 class aka. they fulfilling part of teaching here. On the left is Molly and on the right is Ester.

And the sweetest kid in the world Woo Jin.

And this is how I have decorated my class....

What do you think???????

1st Month

2006-09-14T19:21:00.000+09:00

Its hard to believe that we have been here for one month already. The weeks really fly by here and it really seems like we just got off the plane. Im almost sad to think that I only have 11months left here. I really know why people come here and stay for 2-3 years. It is extremely easy to live comfortably and save a lot of money while traveling around Asia at the same time. Overall, I would rate my time here as great. I only have one kid that really doesn't listen to me and I like the fact that I can send him out in the hallway for a smack from the Korean teacher anytime he acts like to much of an asshole. I think the fact that my E2 are awesome also helps the fact. Even if I am having a bad day on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday the fact that I have kids that understand me and want to finish our work early so we can play One Card (Korean Uno) is really nice.

Also, the fact that we are so busy at school and on the weekends really helps as well. Last weekend we were in Masan. This weekend Seoul, the following will be in North Eastern Korea for our staff get away. Here is the picture of Sorak Mountain and the resort info of where we will stay http://www.daemyungcondo.com/english/sorak/s_facility.asp.

There are things that I like and dont like about Korea. I like that everything is very close but at the same time they just build tall buildings to house everything so the skyline in the Seoul Metropolitan area is pretty ugly. Actually, unless you get into the country Korea is a pretty ugly country as a whole. I like the food and how cheap it is and the fact that I could go to Seoul or Cost Co and get about any western food I want. The bus drivers are nuts (actually today my bus passed a cop driving with his lights on while every car was pulling over like in the states which was pretty weird). But when they start to drive away with a Adjema hanging out the door I pause about my previous stance.

So Overall Korea is good and I just joined a gym today for $70 for 3 months so Im off....bye

Masan Weekend

2006-09-11T19:16:00.000+09:00

This weekend we started off as we start off most weekends thus far in Korea by going to Loss Time for happy hour. Afterwards we went to have some pizza and then went back to watch a movie at our apartment because we had a long day planned on Saturday.

Saturday morning we woke up at 6am to go to Masan. The trip was 4hrs by bus and it cost about $20 to get there. I slept most of the way and overall it was a smooth trip. When we arrived at about 12.30 we took a cab to Carly's apartment and waited in the park next to her apartment because she was away picking up her boyfriend Jarno from another bus station. Masan is in a pretty rural area and they do not have that many foreigners so we were stared at almost everywhere we went. The park had a few kids in it when we got there and it seemed as those we were instant celebrities. Within ten minutes the park was full of little kids that wanted to play with us, have us read various signs around the park which were in English and basically just hang around us.

Around ten minutes later Carly and Jarno arrived and we went to get food. They originally stated that we would be going to get Galbi but it turned out we were getting Sam Gip Som, a thicker cut of meat than Gali which was on the bone. It tasted good but the pork was a lot more fatty than pork Galbi so I think I will stick to the Galbi from now on. After lunch we walked to the hotel which we stayed at. The cheapest hotels in Korea are known as love hotels and for $30 a night you get what you pay for. We walked around for Masan a bit and hung out in the room until it was time to meet up for the soccer game.

At about 5.30 we met Joann, an Irish teacher friends with Carly and went to get a few beers at a grocery store and then met everyone at the bus stop to go to the game. The buss was packed and because of traffic it took 40minutes to get to the game. Everyone had worn orange because the reason for being in Masan was for Carly's boyfriend Jarno. He is Dutch and because he was going home at the end of the week he decided that he wanted to have an orange party, orange being the national color of the Dutch, the last name of there royal family. This was a good coincidence because the team color of the team we went to see, Gyeongnam F.C. was also orange. They had two special deals going which made for an extra fun game, first tickets were $3 if you wore orange and there was free beer outside the stadium. We had a few beers and went into the game. We spent the first half at the center line and just chilled. At the start of the 2nd half we moved down to the goal area and sat with the soccer holigans. They were going nuts even though the stadium was half empty. The team ended up winning 3-2 and they set off flares everytime Gyeongnam scored a goal. The cheering section was called the Gyeongnam Crew. CREW stood for Crazy Rate Extreme Winning. I got to wave some guy named Crazy Bill's Flag for a while and it was a really fun time, I think we will be going to the games in Suwon a town near Suji.

Here is a flare going off after a goal.

Here is me with Crazy Bills Flag

After the game we took a cab back to Suwon and went to a Canadian Bar called Joyce's. It was nothing but foreigners and I think there was maybe 5-6 Koreans in the entire place. We chilled and had a great time for the entire night.

Here is Jarno with Tyler and I.

Tyler Jarno, Carly, Joann, Joel, and someone I cant remember....

We took the 1pm bus back to Suji and got back around 6ish. I was sleeping most of the way as well but I heard there was a bit of traffic. This week should be fun and we have the Terry Foxx run (some Canadian 5k) in Seoul on Sunday. Monday went fast and even my E1's were good, I only had to throw Samuel out of my class once today. Alex wasn't in school for Tyler today as well so hopefully I wont have to deal with him tomorrow either.

Garage Sale

2006-09-06T19:29:00.000+09:00

This week has not been very crazy. It seems that we are falling into a routine that is teaching English in Korea. Monday went pretty smoothly although it is very long. Monday & Wednesday seem like the longest days of the week because everyone has to teach 9 classes. Five classes to the kindergardeners which is fun but tiring, 2 classes to the E1 7-8 year olds. This is probably my worst class because I have the two troublemakers that are always fighting, out of the seat, not listening and basically make it not a fun class to be in. Finally the last two classes of the day are with E2. These kids are 9 years old and almost 10. They know a substantial amount of English and we can have conversations. In this class I am teaching things like possesive pronouns and grammar so these kids are pretty fluent, teach themselves and are basically there so that I can increase their vocabulary by having conversations. They are also motivated and want to be there which makes the class more fun. I now have three kids in this class: Woojin, Ester (the older sister Polly, who recently changed her name to Sarah because it sounded a lot like Pauly) & Molly. These kids are a dream and they always get their work done early so that we can play games like Scategories, Boogle or Bingo, which are all fun for me too.

Tuesday was the Garage Sale for kindergarden, which meant they brought in toys that they no longer played with and would then go buy other kids unwanted toys. I taught my kids to say 'How much is that?" and "Can I have a refund?" because they usually saw something they wanted more after their first purchase. Ten minutes before the sale started I found out that they could get a discount if they said "May I have a discount?" but it didn't take because we didnt have enough time with the review of the other two sentences and my kids were forced to pay full price. I dont know what they were thinking, this is Korea and everything is negotiable.

Also on Tuesday I started my story time class which is two hours just on Tuesdays. I have two students, both from Tyler's kindergarden that will practice reading one story per month and that is all we do....it is less exciting than it sounds. We are reading Goldilocks & the three bears. These kids are very beginner readers but after you read the same story 12 times in a row even a 4 years is bored out of his/her mind. Tyler warned me about the kids I had before and he was right on tee. Wendy is very quiet and spaces out twelve times a class. Basically, the dead stare at the wall until I call her name a few times to bring her back to reality. Alex on the other hand was insane. Tyler had said that he was the worst kid in Happy class but I thought it would be difficult for a 4 year old to be crazy with just another girl that didnt talk in the class. In the forst 50minute period I put the kid in the corner 3times because he would read, sit or pay attention. He ripped his book and would throw the pieces of paper at both Wendy and I. Needless to say it is going to be a long four months....

After work on Tuesday Mrs. Woo, the wife of our boss Saenk Gyu took us to Cost Co in Seoul. They had everything that the have at a Cost Co or a Sam's Club at home plus some. This place was the size of one of those big bluck stores at home but three floors on top of each other. They had an incredible amount of western food. We stocked up on everything from Cheese Its, Orange Juice, Chicken, Taco Mix,etc... and kept it just under $200 which is pretty good for the amount of food we bought. The rest of the week has been pretty normal but now that Wednesday is over it is a breeze. Thursday is a short day and Friday is well, Friday and it doesnt really matter that we have to go til 6.30 again.

We have a Yo now and Tyler was kind enough to model it so if you are interested in paying Korea a visit you can crash on our thin mattress/floor chair....

Weekend Number 3

2006-09-03T23:04:00.000+09:00

Overall, my third week went very well. I started my E2 class on friday and originally I was mad that I had to teach anoth class but it went real fast and it was great because the kids were older 11-13 years old, there were only two of them and we had to do conversational English which was basically just me asking the kids what they like to do and telling them about Chicago. I didn't even notice that the time was almost up. It had been a long day at the end of a long week and I almost wouldn't have minded if it went a little longer. After class we went to Loss Time for happy hour yet again and stayed until about 9.30 this time. We cam back to our apartments to change and then I talked on the phone for about an hour while everyone went to eat some BBQ that was apparently pretty good. We went to TN a micro brewery in Suji that has some decent food and beer and then it was over to the Noray Bong after a stop at 7-11 for some beer....We think we sound good at Noray Bong but I made a video with my camera and now know how bad we actually are....

Jennifer and I singing God knows what?!...... Laura, Allison and Tara singing....

After the Noray Bong most people went home and Tyler, Kevin and I chilled in some tables outside of a By The Way, another 7-11 type place and had another beer. We got the great idea to go back to the Jimjil Bong and headed over there only to watch Kevin get in a fight with some drunk Korean man. "Hey, I don't know much English but I know I don't like you, Why are you in my country.... We were just gonna pass it off as old drunk Korean Hillbilly but Kevin went up and "You're nothing but an ignorant **$@#! do you know what that means in English? We basically walked away after that and Kevin finally came into the pools after like 30minutes.

Saturday we just hung out and walked around Suji, played some video games and watched TV. Most of the people we know here had friends visiting or were visiting in Seoul so there wasn't to much to do. Sunday we decided to go into Seoul and walk around Itaewon a bit. We got there around 4 and decided to get dinner at an Egyptian restaurant which was cheap and really good. I got the Chicken Curry, after that we went and got massages, they lasted about an hour and actually really hurt. They lady destroyed my back and feet but it feels good now. After that we met some of Tara's friends at Jackie Chans and had a few Mohitos, why a Hong Kong movie star has a restaurant known for Cuban drinks I have no idea but they were good. Tara's friend is teaching in the South of the country and invited us to her place for a party and K-League (Korean Soccer League) game next weekend so I guess thats what we are doing....

Here is a pic of me at Jackie Chan's

Best Day So Far

2006-08-31T21:10:00.000+09:00

I know I am going a bit crazy with the pictures but here is a few pics of the view from our porch, my new and improved room and the new chair we got today (Tyler wanted me to mention the masks we bought in the upper left corner of the chair pic)....

Today was a very good day. I had a lesson plan that allowed me to improvise and feel comfortable improvising and I made it long enough for the first time that I was never running out of things to do before the class was over. I had my kids help decorate the classroom today to get ready for September. We made a big calendar and then made a bunch of other classroom things. (Here is the view to our left and Po Bay the Vietnamese Noodle Restaurant we ate at our first night)

The lunch was fish today, which wasnt looking very good (school lunch is about 50/50, usally rice, kimchi, soup and either pork, chicken, tofu or fish...the fish usually is declined by the teachers) we decided to go to Subway which was down the street. After lunch we got our first paycheck we earned with a college degree which was pretty sweet and then promptly spent most of it on our trip to Beijing for Chusok, Korean Thanksgiving (October 4th-8th).....Here is the picture from our balcony to the left....

After lunch we did some Phonics and then made some hand Elephants (upside down hand turkeys). Since today was Thursday I didn't have an E1 class but I met my new class starting next week and there was a new boy without a name, Korean name was something like Andrea and I mentioned that I had a friend named Andrea...(both he, his mom and the kids in the class thought it was a good name and so that became his name). I went back to do some grading and found out that this wouldn't be my class next week, it would go to Tyler and I would take some kids for conversational English...I think because the conversation was for Tylers worst kid Alex and they wanted to give him a break......Here is the picture of my bedroom and slider on to the balcony....

After school we went to the grocery store, instead of Walmart the full fledged Korean grocery store near our school and it was quite the experience. The fish department is full of both live and dead fish, live salamanders, eels, lobster, crabs, big fish and turtles. The meat department had basically every sort of meat you could think of including the bottom half of a cows legs including the hoof. We stocked up on the Korean essentials (rice, noodles & pamagranet juice and went back to the apartment to chill before we went to the Fusion restaurant with Tara and Laura, across the street from our place. The restaurant is a blend of Korean & Italian which is actually very good. After dinner we met another teacher & her friends at a 7/11 type place for a few beers. After that were walking home when we got a call from another teacher about a chair that was being thrown out so we went to go garbage picking yet again and here it is.....

Tomorrow is friday and there will be more stories to tell.......

And Some More B-day Pictures

2006-08-30T23:08:00.000+09:00

Sonny & the Girls
Sonny & the Boys
Sonny & Lucy (They make the B-day person pic a student of the opposite sex to take a couple picture with)
Sonny doesnt want to leave his hat on

My Class @ Sonny's B-Day and Noray Bong

2006-08-30T23:04:00.000+09:00

A Fight!

2006-08-30T20:58:00.000+09:00

Today, Kindergarden when on without any problems. I only put two kids in the corner and didnt send any out so basically a normal day. Then in the afternoon came the E1's, Elementary School kids that come to English school after their normal school. They had their monthly tests today and since they come for two hours MWF I decided to review the first hour and give them the test in the second hour. The problem with my E1's is that they are so spread out in ability so some don't know (or care) what is going on and some are bored all the time waiting for them. Also, I am usually tired from the Kindergarden so that doesnt make it any easier.

The E1's had been getting especially crazy and I had to send two of them into the hallway on Monday and today was not any better. There are two kids (one is Matthew, who is retarded and doesnt practice, do homework, try and participate in class and is basically there so his mother can tell the neighbors that he is in English School. The kid is an idiot and his mom should just save the money because he has been in English school for four years and can hardly read....I could fill up a blog about why I dont like this kid but I wont even bother.
The other kid is Samuel who also has a listening problem aka wont stay in his seat but he does his work, does homework, answers questions and probably has the second best vocabulary in the class.

So to the fight...
For the kindergarden there are usually Korean helper teachers that go in the classrooms during our 10minute breaks between classes. Since these kids are older, it would seem logical that they are mature enough to be alone for 10minutes but I guess not. So Samuel, (who is small and kind of nerdish I guess would be the best word) usually stands behind the door when I come in to class and it is a joke about where Samuel is...well today when I was gone Matthew trapped him against the door and pushed him against the wall which obviously hurt. When I walked in I caught the end of it which was Samuel punching Matthew twice and then running to his chair crying. I was shocked about what was happening as was Keirstie who was walking into her room across the hall at the same time. We both started yelling at the kids and sent them to see Mee Hae(one of the Korean Administrators), Matthew tried to deny he did anything wrong at this time.

I have only sent kids to Mee Hae once before but the word is that if they arent crying when they go to see her they will be when they get back. I dont know what she says to them because they are always crying when they come back, even the toughest boys in the school are crying. So ten minutes later they got back and took the test here are the results.
William: 95%
Samuel:88%
Julia: 85%
Kevin: 79%
Matthew: 65%...I hope he quits

Oh and I got a new girl for this class (Emily) so it should be interesting....

Naming the 1st Kid

2006-08-28T17:28:00.000+09:00

Today I got to name my first kid, we got a new girl in class today and I decided to name her Polly. I know there were tons of people that wanted kids named after them but I had to go with Polly to save myself a lot of time. The new girls Korean name was Pol Yee and to help her remember I figuired that this would be easier for her. Also, the name Polly only has 4 letters and this would be a lot easier for her to write and for me to correct.

Other than that there isn't to much else to report except I almost took a spill off the bus today. Bus drivers in Korea are a special breed, some would say clinically insane. I have been on buses in the short time I have been here an seen them drive away with a lady in her sixties hanging one foot out the door, and then yelled at her to hurry up getting on the bus. Also, one day there was a bus driver that hit the car in front of us and then yell at the driver, it seemed that Koreans also know the bus drivers are crazy because the driver just drove away without reporting the accident or anything.

So if your riding a bus in Korea remember to be careful....

Anyong

2006-08-27T12:40:00.000+09:00

On Saturday morning we walk up a little dazed after our long night out at the bongs(read below). Another one of our teachers had invited us to her friends BBQ which was in Anyong, another suburb west of Suji. All of the teachers met together around 1pm at the bus stop and we grabbed the next bus a few minutes later for $1.50.

An hour later we arrived at the BBQ area and then went to the butcher shop down the street to get some steaks and chicken. My steak cost around $8.00 and was subpar American standards because of all the fat, the steak tasted better than American steak because it was more natural I think but the fact that it was almost half fat made it pretty bad. After leaving our steaks to marinate we walked to the park and had a 5 on 5 basketball game. There were Koreans on the court next door and many other around the park doing other activities and they all stopped to watch the Wayguks (foreigners) play basketball, it was pretty funny, they were clapping and stuff. After basketball we left and went to another park where there was an open field and we played a game of touch football. At this point it began to rain and it rained like I have never seen before. It just poured so hard it was unbelievable, I guess from the typhoon that is brewing in the south pacific. Again, the Koreans in the park were astonished to see the Wayguks laying out in the rain. After about an hour we walked back to the house and BBQ'd and had a few beers. Originally, we had planned on going out afterwards but everyone was too tired so we decided to just call it a night and took the bus back to Suji.

Noray & Jim-jil Bong

2006-08-26T04:16:00.000+09:00

Today was probably the worst behaved my kids have ever been. Unfortunately for them it was also report card day. It was Sonny's Birthday and I didn't want to punished him on his birthday but I eventually had to put him in the corner. Actually, every kid in my class aside from Lucy and Amy. After a long day of the kids acting crazy, (granted because it was Friday) it was time for Sonny's Birthday Party. Sonny had a cake, pizza, fried chicken, fruit & ice cream and something that I thought was a chocolate munckin(actually a rice ball). Overall the leftovers were enjoyed by the teachers.

Although it was a really long day we made it through alright and went to the semi annual teacher happy hour at Loss Time, for group kegs of Hite Beer (Basically glorified Yards of beer). We chilled at Loss Time and had a few beers and eventually decided to go to Pizza School to have a few pizza, which were $5 each. After dinner we decided to go to Noray Bong which is a Karoake Room that is for groups only. You pay a few thousand won per hour and your can byob and got nuts with all the drink and food you want with 10,000+ songs, basically it was as good as it sounds. After Noray bong(room) all of the girls decided to go home and the guys decided to go to Jimjil Bong.

Jimjil Bong is basically a spa for men only, for $4 you can go to a workout and exercise room, a sauna, a steam room and four pools (hot tea, warm, cool and cold). We chilled in the common area and some old Korean man told me that my parents must cry everyday because I left home. For some reason he said this after I ate all of the spicy Kimchi??? We went around the rooms and the pools for a few hours and talked to people in broken in Korean/English and chilled and then eventually walked back..............Overall a great night.

Address

2006-08-24T16:17:00.000+09:00

Here is our address at our school if any of you are iching to send us postcards, letters, Boxes full of cookies, food etc...:). It is at our school because we dont know our address and apparently neither do post office workers....

Kids college language school

IT Plaza 2fl,

Sanghyon dong 257-2,

Yong-in city,

Gyonggi do,

S.Korea

449-130 (post code)

...we hope you send us something

Happy Birthday Charles & Happy Birthday Me

2006-08-23T18:55:00.000+09:00

Today was Charles' Birthday Party, I have two birthday parties this week and the other teachers are jealous because that means you have one less class to teach since then final class of the day is a birthday party. The kids were especially crazy today and I had to send two kids for timeout in one class today and I have never sent a kid to timeout before. They just got nuts during the class when I was trying to teach them the Hokey Pokey....I think they thought that Hokey Pokey meant go crazy. At the end of the day we had Charles' Birthday Party and there was a bigger cake then I had ever seen from his parents. Along with the cake came three different dishes of some Korean dessert that was ice cream, fruit, marshmellows and cornflakes. All of this was over ice and topped with whipped cream. While it was very good it was full of sugar and I was glad that this was the last class of the day. Definitly a good idea with all that they ate including cookies and candy thanks to Charles' mom. After class I worked on my lesson plan and managed to kick out a weeks worth is just under 45minutes...not to bad I think. I walked home with Keirstie, another teacher because we both did not have anymore classes after 4.30 and the other teachers did. I hung out at our apartment for a while and then when Tyler got home we went and picked up some garlic bread and walked over to Tara for Spagetti for dinner. Dinner went well but when we walked back we found that there was a desk that someone had just thrown out. The thing about Korea, I have heard is that they will throw anything out if there is the slitest thing wrong with it, so teachers are notorious for getting most of their furniture, aside from the basics from the trash. We looked over the trash and realized that there was only one wheel missing from this perfectly good computer desk. So Tyler and I carried this nice Oak desk home and proped it up with a bit of cardboard and now I have a nice new desk.

Field Trip - The 6 In the front row are my class

2006-08-22T22:29:00.000+09:00

Today we had a field trip and so the first three classes of kindergarden were cancelled. We boarded the shuttle buses and were off to the field trip which happened to be a Magic Show and was in a room on the upstairs of a mall. Ofcourse, we had to go through the department store with a ton of little kids. The magic show was pretty lame because we could see the magicians tricks as the teachers were sitting on the side and he messed up a few times (but the little kids thought he was really good). After class we went to the immigration office to get our Alien Registration Cards but we did not have the proper documentation so Sang Gyu (Our Boss) will have to go back later this week. Think DMV with a bunch of people that don't speak the same language and want to live in Korea, no matter how legal or illegal it is. When we finally got out of the immigration office we were dropped off at our apartment by Sank Gyu and Tyler, Laura and myself went to get some Chicken Galbi (Spict Chicken Stirfry). After dinner, Tyler and I went to a PC bang and played video games for an hour and then it was back to the apartment to watch TV. Too bad the best thing on is the world championship of video games (they actually have two channels devoted to people playing video games all the time). Ill leave you with the much anticipated pictures of my kids... From the Left (Sonny, Amy, Lucy)

Philip, Abby and Charles

Weekend One

2006-08-20T22:33:00.000+09:00

We started our first weekend in Suji off with a bang. After class let out on Friday we walked home with a few teachers and stopped off at a bar to get a drink. The bar had a happy hour special that was a drum of beer for only 19,000 won or about $19. Myself, Tyler, Laura, Tara and Keirstie sat in this bar for about an hour and then decided to go get some dinner. We went to eat Galbi or Korean BBQ which was expensive by Korean Standards 8,000 won, but very good and there was tons of food. Following dinner we said goodnight to Keirsty and went with Laura and Tara to meet some of the other teachers in Suji. We met up with them at Family Mart (basically a 7-11 where for can by beer and sit outside). We met a few people and just chilled out. The most exciting moment of the evening came when an old Korean man sitting next to us tried to start a conversation with Tyler, told him that he was very handsome and went into Family Mart to by him a can of nuts. I was odd and funny at the same time.
Following Family Mart we walked to TN a micro brewery in Suji and chilled with what seemed like 30 foreigners. Much more beer was drank and there were more than a few jokes made about Tylers nuts. Later that night I went with a few other foreigners to Bundang to a bar called Monkey Beach while Tyler stayed in Suji. When coming back later that night I was lost with my cab driver who said he knew where Suji was although we drove around for what seemed like an hour. When we finally arrived in Suji I realized that I was out of money and had to call Tyler to come pay for the cab. We walked from the cab and went to get some Mandu (Kimchi and Beef dumplings) and then called it a night.

On Saturday, we went in Itaewon, the area of Seoul near the US Army base. We took the bus which took about an hour and only cost $1.50. We went to get some dinner at Geckos, probably the most Western restaurant/bar in Korea. The Itaewon area seemed like a place in any major city in the US and Koreans were definitely the minority in the area. We went around to numerous different bars and tried Soju kettles at some dive bar surrounded by brothels on hooker hill (the other teachers we were with insisted that this bar had the best drinks, I don't know if it was worth the hassle of telling the prostitutes to leave us alone while walking to it). At 1am the MP's cleared out Itaewon because all army passes end at that time. We decided to go to a more Korean area of the city so we took a cab to Hongdae (the Korean University district). We went into a club which we were probably the only four foreigners. This was one of the most packed places I've been to and although you could barely move it was still a lot of fun. After a bit in this place we decided to call it a night and then grabbed a cab home for about 8,000 won a piece. Today was a very relaxed day and we just went to a PC bang(room) and then tried the chicken on a stick from the stand next to our apartment.

Tomorrow is another long day at school so I will talk to you later.

First Days at Kid's College

2006-08-16T19:56:00.000+09:00

Today was our first day at the english language school. The director, Saenk Gyu picked us up at 9.30am & drove us to the school on the way he asked if any of us had any experience with little kids. Tyler said he had done a day camp a few years ago and that landed him with Happy Class. Unfortunately Happy class is the 2nd worst Englsih speaking class in the school so they couldnt understand what Tyler was saying. I on the other hand got Bright class that only had seven kids compared to Tylers ten and they all understand English decently well. We had singing, vocab and reading followed by lunch. After lunch we did playing and cooking (we made Nachos and they were very entertained by the Natyo Cheese joke. The days theme was animals so during playing we had to pick a jungle animal to be and talk about words to describe them and sounds they make. After the little kids left the elementary school kids came and we did work out of there work books, this part was a lot more boring but Tyler said he enjoyed it more because they actually understood what he was saying to them and he could yell at them if they were being dumb, which seemed to happen a lot in my class (especially with Sonny and Lucy who has a crush on Sonny.) After class, Saenk Gyu took us to E-Mart and bought us some things for our apartment (toaster, more pillows, towels, mop, voltage convertor, etc...) After spending a ton of money on us he also asked us to have a Smoothie downstairs on the groundfloor of E-Mart (unlike Walmart at home the stores here are built up instead of out so there are 4 stories in these stores.) We talked for a bit and then he took us to get a cell phone. He bought on and then will reactivate another teachers cell for us on friday. After that he dropped us off at the apartment where we are chilling and playing some PS2 after it finally works thanks to the voltage convertor.

...Another big day tomorrow

Pics of our apartment

2006-08-15T08:52:00.000+09:00

Hello Round Eye

2006-08-14T23:53:00.000+09:00

We got on our plan at around 10am Chicago Time and flew to San Fran where we almost missed our next flight to Seoul because we were not checked in (the dude in San Fran told us to wait and he would call our name only he didnt see that we had not checked in yet. After almost everyone on the plan boarded we went up and talked to the people again and they "graciously" found a seat for both of us. After the longest flight ever we arrived in Seoul to find my broken duffel bag taped and in a plastic bag. When we went out to meet our boss Sank Gyu Kim I think he thought I was a hobo. He drove us to our apartment and seems like a very friendly guy. Our apartment is in downtown Suji across from Dominos and near a few other teachers apartments. Sank Gyu took us out to a Vietnamese Restaurant near our apartment which is very small and has no stove, but our bedrooms are very big. After dinner he called some of the other teachers from our school and we went to hang out with the four of them and there crazy dog. It is really hot in Korea and I am beginning to feel jet lag so I gonna go. We I get internet this week I will put up pics of Suji and our apartment

Its Official

2006-08-11T14:42:00.000+09:00

I went to get my visa at the consulate with T-Bone D-Train and Jesep today at the Korean Consulate in NBC Tower. It took about thirty seconds to get the visas once we got down there but it was a pain to go down and back. The travel agent "Mike" from our recruiter called today and said that he had found a flight for us so it looks like we will be heading out at 10am on Sunday morning. Pretty much I have been packing up stuff and getting ready to go.

Hopefully it all works out....

Visas

2006-08-05T10:06:00.000+09:00

I got a call from Yangjin today and she said that the Visa codes had come in so I had Tyler come down and drop off his passport (because he was going camping) and I headed down to the Korean Consulate in NBC Towers in downtown Chicago. It was like a parking lot driving down there but once I was there it took five minutes and Christie sat in the car so I could just run in and out (with $45 less in my wallet). They said the passports would be ready on Thursday morning and Yangjin is booking the flight for the 13th so it looks like I will be headed to Korea in 9 days.

I better start learning Korean and packing, pretty pumped about the Grad-Birth-Going Away party on the 11th though.

Lata

Suji Position

2006-07-24T08:18:00.000+09:00

So after a few weeks of talking with Katarina from TeachAway I was fed up after a couple days when she did not call us or let us know what the deal is with our schools in Seoul. The school that she recommended seemed to be a littlesuspect and although there was nothing directly related to the Mok-Dong Kid's College everything we had read told us to stay away from those types of schools.

So at about 11pm I found a posting for a job on Eslcafe.com for two friends. I emailed my resume and within 30minutes I had a call from Yangjin at People Planet, another recruiter. She talked to me for a few minutes and then asked if I would be able to speak with the schools director Saenk-Yu (Thank You with an S) he called like 15minutes later and seemed really nice but was a little hard to understand. After a short interview he put meon with one of the current teachers and I asked her just about every question I could think of, she basically summed up thatalthough Suji was a smaller town (of one million) than Seoul it was only a short cab or bus ride away and most importantly the teacher was a really cool guy that had studied in America and wouldnt screw us out of cash. After the phone call I talked to Tyler who interviewed the next day and we decided that we are going to take that position. We have spoken with Yangjin a few more times and after we send our documents and contract we should be on our way to Korea in the middle of August.

Yikes!!

Comfort Level

2006-07-12T13:22:00.000+09:00

We talked to Katarina from teach away today. She said that we already had one offer but she had heard some bad things about this school and advised us against working for them b/c of shady situations that have developed with other Americans. She is going to call again tomorrow with more offers but as of right now I feel that she is pretty legite.

Also I bought a mic so we will have internet phone over the computer when we are there. Download Skype, it has free computer to computer calls and free calls from the computer to any American phone which will save us a ton.

Korea?!

2006-07-07T18:12:00.000+09:00

So we talked to Katarina from Teach Away today and it looks like we are going to be headed to South Korea in the end of August for a year. This lady seemed the most legitimate and the most knowledgable about the process. There was one lady from Korea that barely spoke English calling as well as another American guy that seemed pretty smart as well but he wanted us to work weekends and holidays, i.e. not a perk of going to Korea and experiencing it.

Hopefully everything works out but we will see tommorrow when we get the list of schools that want to pay for our valuable teaching services.
-I mean we survived Ireland right?!